Caddo Parish is located in northwest Louisiana, on the west side of the Red River, across the river from Bossier City.  It has a population of about 243,000 people, most of which (218,000) reside in Shreveport, the third-largest city in Louisiana, and the county seat. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-documented problems throughout the county.

To address the issues, Caddo Parish deputies frequently collaborates with officers from municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and focus on demand-side tactics targeting sex buyers.  The Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office has conducted web-based and street level reverse stings. The names, ages, and addresses of those arrested for soliciting prostituted women are reported in local news outlets, along with details of how the stings were conducted.  For example, in November 2017, police arrested 57 people as part of an initiative targeting prostitution in Caddo Parish.  The men were booked into Shreveport City Jail and/or the Caddo Correctional Center, and their names, ages, and home towns were released to the public.  In the operation dubbed Slick John, Caddo Parish authorities teamed with Shreveport police. In the operaiton a man was also charged with child sex trafficking, a trafficking victims was rescued, and two vehicles, drugs, and firearms were seized.

Street-level reverse stings were first implemented in 1986 within the Parish, and in Shreveport have been conducted as frequently as three to six times per month. Operations typically employ the use of one or more undercover female officers, who serve as decoys. When sex buyers attempt to solicit sex from the women, they are arrested. A reverse sting occurring in March, 2013 resulted in the arrest of seven male sex buyers whose photos, names, home towns, and dates of birth were released to the media.  In these operations, the SPD frequently collaborates with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Louisiana State Police, and officers from neighboring Bossier City.  Web-based reverse stings were first conducted in the Parish in 2005.

In June 2012, Shreveport and Bossier City police participated in the FBI’s Operation Cross Country VI, a three-day sweep of individuals suspected to be engaged in the sex trafficking of minors. Of the 104 people arrested, 30 were apprehended in the Shreveport/Bossier City area. Law enforcement officials suspect the city’s location– situated along Interstate 20, on the state’s border with Texas and Arkansas– has led to its use for sex trafficking operations.

Some arrests of sex buyers result from investigating allegations of offenses against real victim, rather than from undercover police decoys.  For example, in August, 2022, Caddo detectives arrested a Vivian man who asked a young teen to have sex with him in exchange for money. According to the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office Youth Services Division, a 41 year old man supplied two teenagers alcohol. That same evening, he gave one of the teens a handwritten note listing sexual acts with corresponding prices. Both teenagers were interviewed about the incident and the man’s’ property was searched as part of the investigation. Detectives interviewed the suspect and later arrested him. He was booked into the Caddo Correctional Center and charged him with enticing persons into prostitution and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles. No bond has been set.

John School

In 2013, the Louisiana John School program was launched which covers the Caddo and Bossier Parish areas.  The program activity is located in Shreveport, and described on that DemandForum page, but accepts referrals from Bossier City and other communities throughout Louisiana. An excerpt from the program’s home page:

“Louisiana John School is a diversion or sentencing/probation condition program for people arrested for soliciting the services of a Commercial Sex Worker. As a comprehensive public health program the John School will address issues to include violence associated with prostitution, the link between prostitution and addiction, and the public health implications of the same. Offered to first time offenders and habitual offenders, classes range from a single one day course to several courses over several sessions. The single one day class is an eight-hour program offered on Saturdays only which features speakers and presentations on the above referenced topics. The multiple sessions class components of John School vary with greater specificity and intensity with each charge.”

The program is open to self-referrals and non-criminal-justice referrals, as well as accepting men arrested in reverse stings who attend as part of a diversion program or sentence.  Louisiana Law requires all persons convicted of Prostitution shall be referred for counseling concerning AIDS (Louisiana RS 14:82), and the program provides health counseling and expands the education topics to other areas.  The program is open to persons charged and/or convicted of:

• Louisiana John School: Next Class Saturday August 24, 2013
• Posted: Monday, August 12, 2013 4:18 PM
• Pre/Post Trial Education and Recovery Options for:
• Soliciting Prostitutes
• Inciting Prostitution
• Promoting Prostitution
• Prostitution by Massage
• Pre/Post Sentencing Education and Treatment Option