Prairie Village is a small city of about 23,000, situated near Overland Park, KS among the suburbs of Kansas City, KS.  Prostitution and sex trafficking are substantial problems in the area.  We know of one reverse sting that occurred in Prairie Village, a web-based operation conducted in August 2012.  The police department posted a decoy ad online and, in a two-day operation, arrested 13 men who arrived at a hotel room and offered to buy sex with a woman police decoy. The reverse sting was a component of a larger operation that focused also on supply (prostituted and trafficked women and girls) and distribution (sex traffickers) and resulted in 52 arrests overall. Police from neighboring towns assisted, including officers from Leawood, Shawnee, and Mission Police Departments.  In July 2013, a similar joint sting/reverse sting produced over 50 prostitution arrests.

A john school operated by Model Equality and Veronica’s Voice called Stopping Sexual Exploitation: a Program for Men is based in Kansas City, Missouri and open to all courts within the Kansas City MSA, receiving men from, but not limited to Kansas City, KS, Kansas City, MO, Lenexa, Prairie Village, Johnson County, and Wyandotte County. SSEKC is designed to help men understand their behavior and promote their accountability in choosing to not buy sex. The program consists of the following components:

• Two individual 60-minute sessions of Motivational Interviewing (MI) before participation in the group. (MI has been proven to enhance the effectiveness of group intervention programs for perpetration of Domestic Violence and people struggling with chemical dependency.)
• Eight weekly group sessions will follow. Group size is limited, and the eight three-hour learning modules are highly interactive, utilizing exercises and group discussion to engage participants in a process of self-reflection and critical analysis. Weekly topics include:

For more information on the SSEKC program follow the links below:

• Stopping Sexual Exploitation Kansas City (SSEKC) 2019 Evaluation Report
• Johnz School 2008-2014 Evaluation Report
• SSEKC 2019 Presentation

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