Secaucus is a town of roughly 21,000 residents, located near Union City and North Bergen in Hudson County, New Jersey. City officials and law enforcement have reported a rise in prostitution in the area since about 2010, with activities frequently arranged online and occurring within sexually-oriented businesses and local hotels and motels.  Cases of child sex trafficking have also been documented in the city.  For example, in February 2014, a Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for, among other charges, trafficking a 16-year-old girl from Secaucus to Allentown as part of a prostitution ring he operated in both cities and advertised online. In fall 2015, four adults were indicted on sex trafficking charges for forcing a 14-year-old girl to commit acts of prostitution; the victim was recovered at a Secaucus hotel. Prostitution-related violence is also well documented in the city, including a case in October 2022 involving a man robbing two prostituted women at knifepoint at a Secaucus hotel, and another case in April, 2023 where a sex buyer was arrested for stabbing a prostituted woman he met at a Secaucus hotel after a disagreement about payment.

Following several “sweeps” targeting prostituted women and pimps operating within city massage parlors, the Secaucus Police Department shifted focus from street-level and brothel prostitution in fall 2014 and launched a web-based reverse sting. For the operation, SPD officers placed an advertisement on an unnamed “online classifieds website,” and arranged to meet the men who responded at a nearby hotel. Three sex buyers were arrested as a result, and their names, ages and hometowns were released to the public. In a press release about the sting, the SPD Police Chief commented:

“Prostitution is not a victimless crime like many people may think… We plan to remain proactive in the future as we will continue to target both prostitutes and their customers by doing various types of stings on a regular basis.”

Sex buyers have also been arrested in the city without the use of reverse stings.  For example, in November, 2021, a routine traffic stop led to prostitution charges for a Pennsylvania man and Ohio woman in North Jersey. The pair was spotted by Secaucus police officers stopped  on the side ramp of Paterson Plank Road onto Route 3. During the stop, the 34-year-old driver admitted he was at the a hotel on Plaza Drive engaging in prostitution. In March, 2022 a male buyer and prostituted woman were both arrested when police investigated allegations of the theft of money.  The man was charged with Engaging in Prostitution [2C:34-1B(1)], was issued his complaint summons, and was released from police custody.