Forest Grove is an Oregon city of about 26,000 in Washington County, located about 25 miles west of Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a commuter suburb in the Portland metro area. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well documented in the city – and throughout Washington County – for decades.

Among the efforts to address these problems have been the use of tactics focused on curtailing consumer-level demand that drives all prostitution and sex trafficking.  For example, in December, 2015, a Neil Armstrong Middle School math teacher resigned from the Forest Grove School District and the district accepted his resignation after he had been arrested in Portland in August 2015 for soliciting a prostitute, engaging in prostitution, and possessing methamphetamine. He had been on paid administrative since the school district learned of the arrest. He was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court after Portland Police arrested him in the area of Southeast 139th and Division. He was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on possession of meth, two counts of “patronizing a prostitute” and two counts of engaging in prostitution. The man had been hired as a teacher in 1998. He also coached most of the sports offered at the middle school, and from 1992 to 1998 he was also an assistant football coach at Forest Grove High School. According to a probable cause affidavit, the man was stopped by Portland Police for a traffic infraction. There was a female in the car and the man admitted to the officer he intended to pay the female $80 for sex. He also told the officer he had meth in the trunk of the vehicle and intended to smoke meth and marijuana with the woman.

The Forest Grove Police Department has participated in large scale, web-based reverse stings throughout Washington County. For example, in March 2018, a human trafficking operation led to the arrests of 18 men in Washington County, all of who were charged with commercial sex solicitation. The identities of the sex buyers were disclosed in news releases. Agencies involved in the mission included the Forest Grove Police Department, Portland Police Bureau’s Sex Trafficking Unit, Hillsboro Police Department, and the Washington County District Attorney’s Office.