Overland Park is the second-most populous city in the state of Kansas, with about 197,000 residents. It is located in Johnson County in the southwestern suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas. Prostitution and sex trafficking (of both adults and minors) have been reported in the community for several years. Law enforcement has reported that complaints from residents have at times led to crackdowns on prostitution activity.

In their efforts to reduce prostitution, the Overland Park Police Department has conducted at least four web-based reverse stings to identify and arrest sex buyers. Sex buyers are intercepted after responding to a decoy advertisement suggesting prostitution and communicating with an undercover officer posing as a woman offering sex acts for money. Following their arrests, sex buyers’ identities have at times been publicized in press.

Men arrested for buying sex in Overland Park have – when eligible – attended the john school program in Kansas City, MO, run by Veronica’s Voice. Between 2008 and 2014, the city sent 26 men to the Johnz School program in Kansas City.

In July 2018, the Kansas Attorney General announced a new awareness campaign in Kansas aimed at cutting the demand for prostitution as a way to fight human trafficking. The campaign involved state agencies and local advocacy groups teaming up to push the “Demand an End” initiative, which featured education and announcements warning people that sex buyers would face charges. The campaign intended to promote a culture in which buying sex is not acceptable. It was based on the assumption that the money from sex buyers fueled the marketplace that enabled sex trafficking.