Hagerstown is a city of approximately 40,000 residents, located in Washington County, Maryland, about 20 miles north of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity are well documented in this city and surrounding areas. For example, in June 2018 a man was sentenced to spend over a decade behind bars for sex trafficking of a minor. According to his plea agreement, in 2015, he transported a 15-year-old and 17-year-old girl from Pennsylvania to Maryland. He made each girl engage in sexual acts in hotels and kept the money they made. On June 16, 2015, Maryland State Police received a call from the 15-year-old victim’s father. He said his daughter was being held against her will at a hotel in Hagerstown. Troopers responded to the hotel, and approached the man and inquired about the missing girl.

Among the tactics used to address such problems are those focusing on consumer level demand. For example, the Hagerstown Police Department and nearby law enforcement agencies have conducted street-level reverse stings since at least 1983. The names, ages, and addresses of those arrested are often reported in the news, with details about the operations. Punishments vary for men soliciting sex. If convicted, defendants could face up to one year in jail, a $500 fine or both, according to Maryland state code, and the penalties increase depending on whether the individual is accused of human trafficking or involves offenses against a minor. Typical sanctions include one year of probation, plus a fine of $200 to $300.  Some of the men have been ordered to perform 40 hours of community service, in addition to fines and probation.

In June and August of 2019, the Hagerstown Police Department conducted two undercover operations that targeted human trafficking, street-level prostitution and internet-advertised prostitution. Officers targeted people involved in prostitution and solicitation for prostitution.  Seventeen people were arrested, and their identities disclosed.  The investigation was supported, in part, by funds provided by the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

In August 2020 another 12 individuals were arrested in Hagerstown during a prostitution and sex trafficking bust. This particular operation was a joint effort completed by the Hagerstown Police Department, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police and FBI. Reports on the incident also claim that the sting was set up in response to complaints by locals of heavy prostitution in the Hagerstown area.

In June, 2021, a well-known Hagerstown attorney was among several people recently charged with general prostitution following a multi-agency sting involving undercover officers posing as prostituted women in the area of Walnut and Church streets, an area known for prostitution.  The men spoke with an undercover officer and allegedly agreed to pay a price for sex, and were advised to drive to the rear of a tavern in the 200 block of West Franklin Street to meet up. There, they were stopped by Hagerstown Police. A general prostitution charge includes knowingly engaging in “prostitution/assignation” by any means, according to charging language at the Maryland Courts website. It is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a $500 fine.

Some sex buyer arrests are the result of investigating allegations against real victims, rather than the product of stings using police decoys.  For example, in March, 2023, two investigations conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) resulted in two men and six women being indicted for their part in two separate conspiracies to produce sexually explicit images of children (CSAM). According to HSI Baltimore’s investigations, the two men communicated with their co-defendants and others through text messages, messaging apps, social media platforms, websites and the internet. They paid their co-defendants to produce depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, which the women co-defendants then sent to them. The investigations also showed that one male Hagerstown resident conspired to and did transport another minor victim from West Virginia to Hagerstown, where he engaged in illegal sexual abuse acts with the victim. The victim was under 15 during the time of the conspiracy. The man agreed to pay, and did pay, the co-conspirator to transport the victim from West Virginia to Maryland, and also to produce visual depictions of the minor victim engaged in sexually explicit conduct, which the co-conspirator sent to the sex buyer using the internet.