Greenwood is a town of about 3,000 residents, located in southern Caddo Parish, in the northwest corner of Louisiana. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-documented problems throughout the parish and in the town of Greenwood. To address these issues, Caddo Parish deputies have collaborated with officers from municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and focused on demand-side tactics targeting sex buyers. Street-level reverse stings were first implemented in 1986 within Caddo Parish. Operations typically employ the use of one or more undercover female officers who serve as decoys. When sex buyers attempt to solicit sex from the women, they are arrested. A reverse sting occurring in March 2013 resulted in the arrest of seven sex buyers, whose photos, names, hometowns, and dates of birth were released to the media. Web-based reverse stings were first conducted in the Parish in 2005.

The Greenwood Police Department and Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office have conducted web-based and street-level reverse stings. The names, ages, and addresses of those arrested for soliciting prostituted women have been reported in local news outlets, along with details of how the stings were conducted. For example, in November 2017, police arrested 57 people as part of an initiative targeting prostitution in Caddo Parish. In the operation dubbed “Slick John,” the Greenwood Police Department and Caddo Parish authorities teamed up with Shreveport police, the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, and the Caddo-Shreveport Narcotics Task Force and police. The men were booked into Shreveport City Jail and/or the Caddo Correctional Center, and their names, ages, and hometowns were released to the public.

John School

In 2013, the Louisiana John School program was launched, which covered the Caddo and Bossier Parish areas. The program activity is located in Shreveport, and is described on that Demand Forum page, but accepts referrals from Bossier City and other communities throughout Louisiana. An excerpt from the program’s home page states:

“Louisiana John School is a diversion or sentencing/probation condition program for people arrested for soliciting the services of a Commercial Sex Worker. As a comprehensive public health program the John School will address issues to include violence associated with prostitution, the link between prostitution and addiction, and the public health implications of the same. Offered to first time offenders and habitual offenders, classes range from a single one day course to several courses over several sessions. The single one day class is an eight-hour program offered on Saturdays only which features speakers and presentations on the above referenced topics. The multiple sessions class components of John School vary with greater specificity and intensity with each charge.”

The program is open to self-referrals and non-criminal-justice referrals, as well as accepting men arrested in reverse stings who attend as part of a diversion program or sentence. Louisiana Law requires all persons convicted of prostitution to be referred for counseling concerning AIDS (Louisiana RS 14:82), and the program provides health counseling and expands the education topics to other areas. The program is open to persons charged and/or convicted of:

• Louisiana John School: Next Class Saturday August 24, 2013
• Posted: Monday, August 12, 2013 4:18 PM
• Pre/Post Trial Education and Recovery Options for:
• Soliciting Prostitutes
• Inciting Prostitution
• Promoting Prostitution
• Prostitution by Massage
• Pre/Post Sentencing Education and Treatment Option