Lake Township, OH
Categories:
Tactics Used |
|
---|---|
Auto Seizure | ✓ |
Buyer Arrests | ✓ |
Cameras | ✓ |
Community Service | ✓ |
Employment Loss | ✓ |
Identity Disclosure | ✓ |
IT Based Tactics | ✓ |
John School | ✓ |
Letters | ✓ |
License Suspension | ✓ |
Neighborhood Action | ✓ |
Public Education | ✓ |
Reverse Stings | ✓ |
SOAP Orders | ✓ |
Web Stings | ✓ |
Lake Township is a small community of approximately 11,000 residents, located in Wood County, Ohio in the Toledo metropolitan area. Its major prostitution and sex trafficking problems are associated with the town’s truck stops and proximity to several major interstates and state highways. Among the more serious problems associated with the local commercial sex market have been the homicide of three prostituted women in Lake Township truck stops (one each in 1990, 1996, and 2003). News reports of widespread truck stop prostitution in Lake Township and other communities in Wood County, Ohio date back to the 1970s, and have continued to appear through 2013. The highway routes provide a client base of truckers, and also facilitate the movement of sex trafficking victims and those engaged in prostitution. The truck stops provide a place for commercial sex to occur. Police have conducted periodic reverse stings at truck stops in Lake Township since 2010; stings leading to the arrest of prostituted persons date back to at least 1977.
Key Sources
Reverse Stings:
Background on Prostitution in the Area:
- “Prostitution Allegedly Rampant at Wood County Truck Stop.” Toledo Blade, October 7, 1977.
- “Prostitutes ‘Name Game’ Scheme Often Obscures Extent of Sex Trade”, Toledo Blade, April 23 2006.
Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:
- “Police Work to Expose Prostitution, Sex Trafficking”, ABC/WTVG-TV 13, November 26 2013.
- https://www.cleveland.com/akron/lake_township_man_accused_of (2016)
- https://www.sent-trib.com/opinion/lake-twp-restarting-human-trafficking-campaign (2021)
- https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/lake-township-police-credit-recent-officer-training-for-helping-recover-missing-teen-who-may-have-been-trafficked-is-located (2022)
- https://nbc24.com/news/local/lake-township-police-recover-first-juvenile-in-missing-children-program (2022)
Documented Violence Against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:
State | Ohio |
Type | City |
Population | 11404 |
Location |
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