Lawrence Township is a community of about 33,000 residents located in Mercer County, NJ. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well documented problems in the city. Among the more serious issues associated with the city’s prostitution market is child sex trafficking. For example, in 2018, the New Jersey State Police arrested and charged two people, both of Trenton, NJ, with human trafficking after troopers encountered a 17-year-old victim on Interstate 295 whom the defendants had allegedly been sex trafficking. According to reports, in January 2018, troopers from Hamilton Station were dispatched to investigate a report of a young woman walking along Interstate 295 in Lawrence Township. In New Jersey, interstates are considered limited access highways, which means bicyclists and pedestrians are not allowed to use them, and if encountered by a state trooper, they will be transported to a safe location. When troopers located the victim, she told them she escaped from a hotel where she was being sex trafficked. As a result, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Lawrence Police Department, and the New Jersey Department of Children and Families responded to Hamilton Station to assist with the investigation. Detectives determined that the two suspects allegedly transported the victim to hotels against her will and she was sexually exploited in exchange for money. One of the defendants placed ads on Backpage.com, a website known for prostitution and sex trafficking, in which photos of herself and the victim were featured. Shortly after the interview, members of the New Jersey State Police Trafficking Central Unit and Troop “C” Criminal Investigations Office located and made the arrest at a township hotel.

In effort to reduce instances of prostitution and sex trafficking in the city, law enforcement has deployed demand reduction tactics. For example, in September 2014, after questioning a man during a motor vehicle stop, police raided a motel and arrested a woman for allegedly performing a sexual act during a massage. During the investigation, police said the driver allegedly admitted that he had just left the motel after receiving a $100 massage that concluded with a sexual act. The man said he made contact with the woman online via Craigslist, and that she told him to meet her at the motel. The officers then prepared a criminal complaint against the woman, and later went back to the motel to make the arrest. But when the officers raided the motel, police said they found the woman and her brother in the room with 28 packets of heroin and assorted drug paraphernalia. The sex buyer was charged with soliciting prostitution in connection with the incident. He was released on a summons to later appear in court.