Murfreesboro is a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee and has a population of over 158,000. It is the county seat of Rutherford County. Prostitution rings and hotel-based prostitution and sex trafficking are known to occur in the city, and to generate complaints to police. In one case, a pimp shot a man and was seized in a Murfreesboro motel.

To combat the consumer-level demand that generates the market and is the root cause of such problems, the Murfreesboro Police Department has collaborated to conduct reverse stings.  For example, in October, 2021, twelve men accused of trying to purchase sex with minors were arrested in an undercover, web-based reverse sting conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Murfreesboro Police Department. Over a two-day period beginning October 13th, as part of an undercover investigation aimed at addressing human trafficking in Middle Tennessee, authorities placed several decoy advertisements on websites known to be linked to prostitution to identify individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with minors. The photos and names of all the arrested sex buyers were included in press releases and news coverage.

Not all arrests of sex buyers are the result of sting operations, but may instead occur as the product of investigations of alleged offenses against real victims.  In February, 2021, a MTSU student was arrested for “soliciting a prostitute” a hotel on Armory Drive. The previous day, a Murfreesboro police officer had met the woman occupying a hotel when responding to a 911 hang-up call from her room at the hotel. She told him that a man had met her and agreed to pay $100 to have sex with her, but then refused to pay, and refused to leave. The woman admitted to being involved in prostitution since she was 18, she was traveling the country conducting business, and that she posts ads on Backpage.com. The officer told her that he would not arrest her, but that she should stop working in Murfreesboro. After learning that the woman posted another ad on Backpage, the officer sat in the parking lot and watched the hotel room, and later saw a man enter the room. The officer waited approximately 12 minutes then knocked on the door. The woman again admitted to prostitution, and the officer found $743, all of which she said she had made since she got to Murfreesboro Sunday, as well as e-books about escort services. The man in the room was placed into custody for patronizing prostitution and the woman was arrested for promoting prostitution. The money she made was seized as evidence. The man was currently held at RSCO on $1500 bond. The sex buyer was a 19-year-old freshman at MTSU, and was found in the restroom of the hotel room. A condom was found in the trash can that the man admitted to putting on. A search of both individuals’ cell phones revealed a conversation in which the woman asked him to bring condoms. The man’s phone also had “several similar text messages between he and other individuals inquiring about their services,” according to a police report.  The man also told police he contacted the woman through the website Backpage.com.

The city hosts a privately-funded, online version of a john school program. A private company that provides counseling services has started an online john school program, based in Murfreesboro but serving all interested first-time offenders.  The intent is to provide a john school option for intervention for men who might not have access to (or wish to pursue) a traditional, in-person classroom or counseling experience.  The program is for first-time offenders only.  As of October 2013, the program was new and had not yet served any clients. The program is divided into four 1-hour sections:

• Section 1: Legal Risks of Prostitution
• Section 2: Health Risks of Prostitution
• Section 3: Impact on Survivors
• Section 4: Impact on Communities, Spouses and Children

More details and contact information are available at the program’s webpage.