Norcross, a northern suburb of Atlanta, has a population of approximately 17,000 and is situated in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Prostitution, as well as several high-profile cases of sex trafficking, have generated considerable problems in the community for years. Trafficking victims have included both adults and minors, both U.S. citizens and foreign-born persons, and both adult women and female children. For example, in January 2019, a 21-year-old woman was arrested and accused of running a sex trafficking operation in Gwinnett County, where she took underage girls to men at hotels and apartments. She allegedly set up the meetings and prices online for the girls, ages 14 and 15, and then drove them “to dates located at hotels, apartments, and houses,” according to her arrest warrants. The warrants said she would take 50 percent of the earnings from the paid sexual abuse. She faced five charges, including two counts of sex trafficking, felony theft, and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Local commercial sex activity has also been linked to robberies of both sex buyers and those who are sexually exploited.

In their efforts to curtail prostitution and the range of crimes it generates, local law enforcement agencies have conducted operations targeting consumer-level demand. For example, in July 2006, Norcross Police Department officers partnered with their peers at the Gwinnett County Police Department to conduct a street-level reverse sting in the Indian Trail Road area. Over a three-hour period, 11 men were arrested after approaching and offering money to a female police decoy for sex acts. Following their arrests, the identities of the arrested sex buyers were publicized by select press outlets.

Not all arrests of sex buyers are from sting operations using police decoys. Some are the result of investigations of offenses against real victims and have resulted in the loss of employment for sex buyers.  In January 2022, a Norcross police officer was arrested and fired after department officials said he broke his oath and solicited sex from a prostituted woman while in uniform. The Norcross Police Department said they were tipped off by the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office after they learned that a possible police officer was “pandering for sex with a prostitute” in Norcross. Investigators with the two agencies investigated and obtained evidence of the officer’s sex-buying misconduct, along with information revealing he was searching names on a state computer database with “no legal justification to query.” NPD terminated the officer’s employment on Jan. 7, 2021, and prosecutors charged the officer with two counts of GCIC violations, two counts of breaking an oath of office, and two counts of pandering for sex.  In a news release, the Norcross Police Chief said,

“We have zero tolerance for such misconduct. (His) actions were immoral, unethical, and without integrity, all of which are the core requirements of our profession and will never be tolerated. As members of law enforcement, we are oath-bound to uphold the law; no one is above it.”