Waterbury is a city in western Connecticut, located in New Haven County, and has a population of approximately 114,000 residents. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-known problems in the city, and activity appears to occur primarily indoors in hotels or apartments, and is arranged online. Prostitution activity generates numerous complaints to police by residents and businesses. Among the more serious issues associated with the local commercial sex market has been the activity of a serial killer suspected as the cause of three slain prostituted women discovered in the late 1990s in one stretch of woods by the Naugatuck River and instances of child sex trafficking. For example, in August 2013, local law enforcement agencies participated in a three-day national operation combatting child sex trafficking. As a result, juvenile victims were found in Milford, Groton, and Waterbury. Police have reported that complaints from local residents and businesses are numerous and persistent, and such complaints play a role in police conducting prostitution operations.

The Waterbury Police Department’s efforts to combat commercial sex have included the use of tactics focused on demand such as street-level reverse stings, some of which have produced over 30 arrests. For example, in 2007, the Waterbury PD conducted a street-level reverse sting operation that resulted in the arrest of 33 male sex buyers. The identities of arrested offenders were included in reports by local media outlets. The operation was one of the largest operations conducted in the city and was initiated in response to residential complaints about the growing prostitution problem in the neighborhood. Police can also seize the vehicles and release the identities of arrested sex buyers.

Employment loss is also a consequence of buying sex in the city. For example, in 2014, a former court marshal was arrested by state police on allegations of promoting prostitution. According to police, the arrest was related to an ongoing criminal investigation conducted by the Western District Major Crimes Squad. He was released on a $25,000 bond and was placed on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of the investigation. He was officially fired later that year. In 2016, the former judicial marshal was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison (with the term suspended after one year), on several sex-related charges that included promoting prostitution, sexual assault, and trafficking in persons. According to reports, “A seven-month probe into the former judicial marshal found that he posed as a police official to coerce three prostituted women into sex under the threat of arrest.” The investigation was initiated as a result of victim reports to police.