Stroudsburg is a city of about 6,000 residents, located in eastern Pennsylvania’s Monroe County roughly an hour’s drive southeast of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Prostitution activity, often arranged online and occurring within local businesses and hotels, has been reported in the city for many years. Minors have also been discovered during prostitution stings.

In March 2015, the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office announced the completion of multiple web-based reverse stings targeting sex buyers in the Stroudsburg area. Conducted between January and March, the investigations targeted online advertisements suggesting prostitution. According to reports, law enforcement both placed and responded to listings, and arranged to meet the men and women who responded at a nearby hotel. The hotel reportedly offered to “host” the sting, and allowed law enforcement to install surveillance equipment to collect evidence during the  operation. Six sex buyers were arrested as a result; some of those arrested allegedly attempted to exchange drugs for sex. All of the offender’s names, ages, hometowns, and arrest photos were released to the public.

In June 2016, detectives from the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office led a web-based sting in Stroudsburg resulting in the arrest of 12 men for patronizing a prostitute. They were assisted by the Stroud Area Regional Police Department, the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department, the Bethlehem Township Police Department, and the Pennsylvania State Police. Undercover officers posted two advertisements on Backpage.com and received multiple calls throughout the day. After arranging a meeting and receiving payment, the men were arrested. The operation was part of the District Attorney’s Office’s ongoing efforts to combat human trafficking and prostitution in the community. In addition, the mugshots, names, ages, and hometowns of the men arrested were shared with the press.

In January 2017,  the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office conducted another web-based sting in Stroudsburg that resulted in the arrest of 1o men, who were charged with patronizing a prostitute. The sting was set up using an “undercover room” with undercover police officers, as well as audio and video surveillance monitored from an adjoining room. The operation also resulted in 3 arrests for trafficking. The mugshots, names, ages, and hometowns of the arrested sex buyers were released to the press.

In March 2019, a Lehigh County man was arrested as the result of an undercover sex trafficking sting in which he arranged to pay to sexually abuse an 11-year-old girl. The 40-year-old man was charged by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office with attempted rape of a child and a total of 13 felony charges. A prostituted woman who was arrested earlier in the month told detectives a man contacted her saying he was interested in paying her to find him a young girl to sexually abuse. Investigators found evidence of the conversation in the woman’s cell phone and were able to identify the man. Two detectives from the district attorney’s office continued the conversation, posing as the prostituted woman, and told the suspect they had found a woman who was willing to allow him to sexually abuse her daughter for $400. The detectives began posing as the child’s mother while talking with the man, who asked the detectives if they could also arrange it so he would pay the mother $100 every week to have the 11-year-old child perform a sexual act on him. The detectives arranged to meet in Stroudsburg, and the man was apprehended by investigators after he arrived at the meeting.