160 arrested in crackdown on patrons of sex workers in Ohio

A statewide crackdown on patrons of sex workers netted 160 arrests, mostly of men suspected of being "johns," Ohio's attorney general announced Monday.

"Operation Buyer's Remorse" reached every corner of Ohio and swept up a 17-year-old suspected of soliciting a sex worker and an 84-year-old suspected of the same, the attorney general's office said.

The weeklong operation netted 149 such arrests, the office said in a statement. The 11 other people included suspects accused of what the office described as "promoting prostitution," covered under state law prohibiting the act of compelling sex work.

"That's what makes this pernicious," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a video produced by his office. "You're contributing to the demand for human trafficking."

In Toledo, the U.S. Border Patrol, one of the 100 law enforcement agencies involved in the operation, participated in warrant-based searches of five massage parlors the attorney general's office described as "illicit" in nature.

Six people connected with the locations were arrested on suspicion of compelling prostitution, the office said.

A handful of suspects were arrested and accused of seeking to have sex with children or possessing drugs or guns, the office said.

Yost characterized the operation as a victory in U.S. law enforcement's war against human trafficking, difficult-to-define criminal activity that often overlaps with age-old sex work.

"Law enforcement across Ohio teamed up in a concerted effort to stem the demand that fuels human trafficking,” Yost said.

James Schultz, the police chief in Willoughby, Ohio, spoke about human trafficking in the attorney general's video. "The people that are involved in it at the ground level really are the victims," he said.

"They’re compelled to do this," he said of sex workers. "They’re forced to do this."

Behind the arrests were eight task forces across the state that organized stings in late September to lure suspects to fake encounters with sex workers, according to the statement and the video.

More than 100 survivors of human trafficking were contacted during the operation, the office said. In its video, the office also described the contacts as "potential victims." They were offered information about social services, it said.

None of the suspects was specifically accused of human trafficking. Ohio has a law against human trafficking, which was not cited in any of the arrests the attorney general's office listed.

The video included an unnamed detainee who said: "I'm not a bad person. I just enjoy sex. I'm not going to lie."

Organizations representing sex workers and civil liberties did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The groups, along with some academics, have long decried the criminalization of sex work, even in cases like this one, in which sex workers were not targeted.

The Yale Global Health Justice Partnership in 2020 said in a document about sex work policy, "There is no evidence that criminalizing sex work deters those who may sell or buy sex."

"The evidence shows that criminalization, whether full or partial (the latter only targets buyers), makes sex work more dangerous; drives sex workers into more isolated locations; impedes the use of safety and harm reduction strategies; makes it more risky to report violence and abuse from clients, managers, and law enforcement; and increases risk of exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections."