Cicero is a city of approximately 83,000 residents, located just west of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Street prostitution has been a persistent and visible problem in the area, with commercial sex frequently occurring along Cicero Avenue generating numerous complaints to police.   Sex trafficking is also known to occur locally.  To address these and other negative impacts of the local sex trade, the Cicero Police Department and Cook County Sheriff’s Office have routinely conducted street-level reverse to identify and apprehend sex buyers. Operations often take the form of large-scale, multi-jurisdictional sweeps, wherein teams of undercover female officers target hotbeds of prostitution activity in Cicero and the surrounding area. In May 2000, one large-scale reverse sting netted 217 men in less than 48 hours. The convicted sex buyers faced a $500 fine plus an additional $500 recovery fee to retrieve their vehicles seized during the arrest. All offenders names were and continue to be released to the media, and are often printed in local newspapers.