Richfield is a city in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota area, with a population of approximately 33,000.  Sex trafficking and prostitution are well-documented local problems.  Prostitution has led to tips and complaints from the community, and among police responses have been efforts to combat consumer-level demand.  The Richfield Police Department has conducted at least two reverse stings, which resulted in the arrest of 23 johns.  The most recent of the operations reported in the media occurred in February, 2013 and resulted in the arrest of 10 johns during a sting along the Interstate 494 corridor, and a 2010 operation led to the arrest of 13 men.

In response to the 2010 reversal, Suzanne Keopplinger, the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, said believes police stings that target men they suspect of trying to buy sex is the right approach:  “It’s about time we start exposing the men who are creating the demand.  I think that we have to start looking at the men who are creating the demand, because this is in fact a market driven enterprise.”