Authorities arrest 115 men in Tarrant County on suspicion of soliciting prostitution

Emerson Clarridge
·2 min read
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Referring to prostitution as evil, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn on Monday announced the arrests of 115 men who he said had sought to pay for sex acts with people acting as decoys.

The suspects were arrested in September. Some of the decoys are adults; others are underage. The men who were arrested on suspicion of soliciting prostitution from an adult face the prospect of a more punitive sentence then had they been arrested before last month because the crime became a felony in Texas in September.

The men are between 20 years old and their mid 70s.

“These people that were arrested were from every walk of life. From every socioeconomic group. From every ethnicity or race,” Waybourn said at press conference.

The sheriff said that investigations of prostitution would continue, and he warned prospective buyers that they could find themselves arrested in the next detail.

“We will be out there looking for these people. Constantly. All the time,” Waybourn said.

The operation, called “Buyer Beware,” was focused on reducing the demand that drives sex trafficking, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies in the Human Trafficking Unit worked in the detail with Fort Worth and Arlington police, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Texas Office of the Attorney General and Tarrant County constables.

“Our combined efforts to eradicate human trafficking in the metroplex are incomplete without addressing the egregious demand for commercial sex.” Christopher Miller, the acting Special Agent in Charge at the HSI Dallas office, wrote in a statement. “The HSI Dallas-led North Texas Trafficking Task Force continues to collaborate with law enforcement partners to combat human trafficking from a holistic, victim-centric approach. The 115 arrests announced today should serve as a deterrent to those who incentivize and glorify human trafficking by consuming commercial sex. Without demand, human trafficking would cease to exist.”