Orange is a village of approximately 3,000 residents, located just outside of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented in the area. Due to the significant amount of prostitution-related activity occurring within and around the village, officials have implemented various tactics in effort to decrease the demand for commercial sex in the area.

For example, in 2013 the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from several local police departments, conducted a joint operation that resulted in the arrest of 15 male sex buyers. The undercover prostitution investigation was conducted at a local hotel over the course of three nights. According to officials, decoy female officers posing as prostituted women received numerous calls from men seeking to engage in commercial sex. The sex buyers were arrested upon their arrival to the hotel. Among the 15 arrested sex buyers was a Cleveland Browns linebacker. According to reports, the NFL player was found guilty of disorderly conduct and was forced to pay a $365 fine in addition to making a public apology to his wife and team. The team did not seek disciplinary conduct. The arrested sex buyers were scheduled to appear in Bedford Municipal Court in May of 2013.

In 2015, at least 12 male sex buyers were cited for soliciting prostitution in a three-day prostitution sting. The Orange Village Police Department, the Beachwood Police Department, and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department posted decoy advertisements on the website Backpage.com, wherein undercover female officers received calls from potential sex buyers seeking to engage in commercial sex acts and arranged to meet them at a local motel. Over the course of three days, investigators arrested 12 sex buyers upon their arrival to the motel and seized just under $1,700 in cash from arrested sex buyers. In 2020, a multi-agency sex trafficking task force, set up through the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, arrested six sex buyers during a prostitution sting at a local hotel. According to reports, suspected sex buyers had responded to decoy ads posted by undercover agents on targeted websites and were arrested upon their arrival at the hotel.