Greensburg is a city in (and the county seat of) Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It has a population of about 14,000 and is classified as part of the greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area. Prostitution activity has been well-documented in communities and unincorporated areas of the county.  This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. The local sex trade also generates related crimes, such as child endangerment. For example, in 2017, a woman was arrested during a sting operation by the Greensburg Police Department, and was charged with child endangerment and prostitution.  The woman said her 1-year-old daughter sometimes was present in the home during her commercial sex encounters. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is human trafficking, posing enough of a problem that resources have been invested in establishing the Westmoreland County Task Force on Human Trafficking, and centers that provide services for human trafficking victims. For example, in July, 2017, police alleged that a woman accepted money from men in exchange for allowing them to inappropriately touch a 7-year-old girl. She was charged with trafficking of minors, along with several other offenses. The investigation by Greensburg police was initiated by a ChildLine report and an interview with the victim, where police learned of allegations that involved the men touching the girl at the suspect’s apartment. The woman admitted to investigators that she had sex with men in her apartment in exchange for cash, and police found messages on her phone indicating prostitution activity. She told investigators she watched two men kiss and touch the girl in exchange for money. Police also investigated whether a 3-year-old girl who also was in the woman’s care was molested.

Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and demand reduction tactics have been implemented in the city.  For example, in September, 2022, a Greensburg man was arrested in the city and pleaded guilty in an Ohio court to attempted compelling prostitution and failure to follow a police order after a grand jury indicted him for attempting to pay for sexual abuse of a minor. The man faced a potential state prison sentence as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors and will be required to register as a sex offender after his release. An indictment had been filed the prior May in connection with a January, 2022 incident in which Columbiana County grand jurors determined that the man was attempting to meet a minor for sexual abuse. The indictment did not say how the offender contacted the person who he believed was a child, or the age or gender of the purported child. Grand jurors also determined that the sex buyer fled after police told him to stop. Three other related charges were dismissed as part of a plea bargain. Although the offense and the indictment occurred in another city, the arrest of the sex buyer occurred in Greensburg.