Leyden Township is a community of approximately 100,000 residents, located northwest of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Prostitution has been a persistent and visible problem in the Mannheim Road area for years. In an effort to identify and apprehend sex buyers, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has incorporated the use of street-level reverse stings. Police may use formerly prostituted women as scouts, and the reverse sting operations typically use an undercover female officer as a decoy. When men attempt to solicit sex, they are quickly arrested.  Police may release the names and identities of the arrestees to the media.

In 2008, Cook County implemented the “Public Morals Nuisance Ordinance to End Demand.” Arrested johns in Leyden Township may now be subject to auto seizure and up to 100 hours of community service. Additionally, fines collected from john arrests are now deposited in a Women’s Justice Services Fund. In 2010, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office began placing two anti-soliciting billboards in the Mannheim Road area with these words of warning to potential sex buyers:  “Chances are, the woman you are about to pick up works for us. Expect to pay $2,150.”