South Salt Lake is a city of approximately 26,000 residents, located just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.  Both prostitution and child sex trafficking are well-documented problems in the city, and throughout the region.  For example, in 2013, a sex trafficking ring was investigated and dismantled by law enforcement officials; in doing so, officers discovered girls as young as 14 were found to be coerced into performing sex acts for Utah men who patronized the back rooms of three Salt Lake area massage parlors (including businesses in South Salt Lake). Agents also detained 10 females, including minors, several of whom were undocumented aliens whose identities were not determined.  Multiple law enforcement officers and agents on a local, state and federal level participating in the Attorney General’s SECURE Strike Force conducted enforcement operations in the massage parlors and served a search warrant at a home in the Salt Lake Valley area. The brothels in which trafficking was found to occur operated in Salt Lake City, Millcreek and South Salt Lake.

In an effort to identify and apprehend sex buyers, officers from the South Salt Lake Police Department have conducted several street-level reverse stings using undercover female officers as decoys.  The first known operation was conducted in the 1992.  At times, police have used video cameras to track cars as they approach and attempt to solicit sex from the undercover officers. To ensure the decoys’ safety, the SSLPD have also equipped the women with hidden microphones. The names and identities of arrested sex buyers are not typically released to the media; however, they have been disclosed at times when the offender was a public figure of note.