Winchester is a city of approximately 19,000 residents, located 25 miles east of Lexington in Clark County, Kentucky. Residents and business owners have complained of the detrimental effects of prostitution on their neighborhoods and businesses. In an effort to reduce street prostitution in the city, the Winchester Police Department (WPD) conducted a reverse sting in March 2013. The operation lasted just under four hours, and resulted in the arrest of five sex buyers. All of the arrestees had their names publicized by a local news outlet.

In an interview with the Winchester Sun, the WPD stated that the operation marked the first time city officers formally targeted sex buyers. When asked about the change in course, WPD Captain James Hall stated that previous sweeps of prostituted women had been only limitedly successful:

“If we dry up the demand, hopefully the supply will go away. We’ve targeted the prostitutes themselves in the past. Now we’re targeting the customers themselves, the johns. We’ll continue this type of operation for the foreseeable future. If we can keep the johns off Main Street, we’ll keep the prostitutes off Main Street.”