Stillwater is a city of about 47,000 residents in north-central Oklahoma, situated along the Interstate 35 corridor and about equidistant from Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  Prostitution and sex trafficking are known to occur in the city and generate complaints to police.

Police responses to local commercial sex have included attempts to combat demand.  In November 2013, 26 people were arrested and charged with prostitution offenses during a two-day sting/reverse sting operation.  Police arrested 15 men and 10 women during the sting. Ranging in age from 19 to 66 years old, the 26 arrestees faced charges including prostitution, solicitation for the services of a prostituted woman, and aiding and abetting prostitution. Some arrestees were charged with additional, non-prostitution related offenses, including accessing a computer to violate state statutes, possession of marijuana; resisting arrest; public intoxication; possession of drug paraphernalia; and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.  Due to the nature of the public reports, we cannot say precisely how many of the arrests were for sex buying – although later reports said six men were arrested for pandering and 11 for soliciting prostitution in the November 2013 reversal.  The Payne County Sheriff’s Office and the Perkins Police Department assisted the “Special Projects Unit” of the Stillwater Police Department and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics during the two-day operations.

A report in December 2013 said that an additional six men were arrested during a prostitution sting in Stillwater.  The men were charged with soliciting prostitution after allegedly placing money on a countertop at a Stillwater hotel in exchange for sex.

In July 2016, a web-based reverse sting conducted in Stillwater resulted in the arrest of four men on felony prostitution charges, on suspicion of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Prostitution offenses in Stillwater are punishable as misdemeanors with jail time of up to one year or a fine of up to $2,500 or both, and required community service of up to 80 hours if convicted.  We are not certain if the community service provision is actually applied to sex buyers or prostituted persons, or if any convicted persons actually see jail time or maximum fines.