Tooele County, Utah has a population of approximately 77,000 and is located in the greater Salt Lake City metro region. Prostitution activity has been well-documented within the county, and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is sex trafficking. For example, in June, 2020, a man who had just been released from jail was arrested and faced charges of trying to force a woman to engage in prostitution. The man was charged in Tooele County’s 3rd District Court with aggravated exploitation of prostitution, a second-degree felony. He had been arrested by Unified police for interfering with a public servant. Two days after his May 24 arrest, according to charging documents, the man drove with a woman to a truck stop on E. Saddleback Blvd., in Lakepoint, Tooele County, and told her “she had to have sexual intercourse with some of the truckers to get him some money or he was going to beat her face in,” according to charging documents. After walking around the parking lot, the woman went into the business office and asked for help, the charges state, and police were called.

Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and demand reduction tactics used in the county include the disclosure of sex buyer identities and employment loss. For example, in August, 2017, a Tooele High School assistant football coach has been placed on unpaid administrative leave and is expected to be fired following a recent arrest in Salt Lake City. Mark Lyne Jackson, 39, of Tooele, was arrested during a weeklong prostitution sting conducted last week by Salt Lake police. He was arrested Aug. 23 for investigation of patronizing a prostitute. Jackson “arranged with an undercover officer to pay cash in exchange for sex acts,” according to a Salt Lake County Jail report. Police say the incident occurred at 340 N. 900 West.  Tooele County School District spokeswoman Marie Denson said Jackson was placed on administrative leave Aug. 24, then unpaid administrative leave on Tuesday, and will be officially considered terminated as of Sept. 7. He was hired as an assistant football coach in 2011.