Albany is a city of approximately 98,000 residents; it is the seat of Albany County and the capital of New York. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity has been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities and in unincorporated areas of the county. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates result in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is child sex trafficking. For example, in March, 2023, a Troy man was indicted in connection to a sex trafficking investigation, and was charged with one count of Sex Trafficking a Child and one count of Promoting Prostitution. He was accused of being involved in the “prostitution of a minor” (i.e., sex trafficking) at a hotel on Northern Boulevard in the city of Albany between October 27, 2022 and November 1, 2022.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response. To identify and apprehend local sex buyers driving the prostitution and sex trafficking markets, the Albany Police Department and Albany County Sheriff’s Office have conducted street-level reverse stings and web stings to identify and arrest sex buyers. Operations typically employ one or more undercover female officers who pose as decoys. When men attempt to solicit sex from the officers, they are quickly arrested. In addition to releasing offenders’ names to local media outlets, the APD began posting buyers’ names on mobile electronic billboards along downtown thoroughfares in late 2009.

Loss of employment is another consequence of buying sex within the city. For example, in 2008, the Governor of New York resigned in response to a scandal in which his frequent sex buying had become publicized. In May 2019, an Albany police officer pled guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol. The plea stemmed from an incident earlier that year in which the officer shot and killed a man in Utica who tried to rob him while meeting up with a prostituted woman. He was cleared of murder charges after a judge determined it was self defense. He remained charged with soliciting prostitution, for which he has pleaded not guilty. The man resigned from the Albany Police Force while his prostitution charge was being prosecuted.