Manchester is a city with approximately 116,000 residents, located in south-central New Hampshire. Prostitution and sex trafficking are known to occur in the city, and in some cases, are linked to regional and international sex trafficking operations. For example, in 2018, a couple was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, among other offenses. In June 2021, the woman defendant pled guilty to running a sex trafficking operation throughout northern New England. The woman admitted that she and her husband persuaded more than two dozen women living in China and the U.S. to be exploited in prostitution. She was charged with an array of offenses including sex trafficking by fraud or coercion, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. The woman and her husband, both Concord residents, set up a prostitution ring using rented houses and motels in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, according to court documents. Many of the women recruited came to the United States on B-2 non-immigrant visas that allow foreigners entry for pleasure, tourism, or medical treatment, but will not allow them to work legitimately. The Associated Press reported at the time of her arrest that 27 women had been convinced to “work as prostitutes” with the promise of earning thousands of dollars. The couple rented houses in Portland, ME and Manchester, NH for periods in 2016, and the trafficked women were moved from motel to motel every few days. The prostitution ring was advertised on internet sites, including Backpage.com. The women had been recruited through fraud and exploitation of vulnerabilities: they had been promised work outside of prostitution but weren’t able to find such jobs, many owed debts for their travel to the U.S, they spoke very little English, and they had no contacts in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont. The woman pled guilty to conspiracy and four counts of transportation for purposes of prostitution. In exchange for her pleas, the U.S. Attorney’s office dismissed two counts of sex trafficking by fraud or coercion and one count of transportation for purposes of prostitution.

Law enforcement agencies have targeted demand as a means of addressing the wide range of crimes and problems arising from the local commercial sex trade. Manchester police began conducting reverse stings at least as early as 1991 and have conducted them occasionally since. A survey completed by the Manchester Police Department in 2009 for the National Assessment indicated that they conduct about 12 reverse stings per year, the identities of arrested sex buyers are routinely publicized by police, and the courts have the discretion to impose SOAP orders on arrestees.

Reverse stings have, at times, been conducted routinely in Manchester. From 2007-2009, Weed and Seed program funds were used to partially fund reverse stings – making them more frequent, and allowing them to deploy two or three decoys rather than just one team. In February 2015, MPD officers staged a street-level reverse sting that resulted in the arrests of four male sex buyers. Following their arrests, the men’s identities were publicized by local media outlets. A reverse sting was conducted in September 2017 near the Enright Park area of the city after residents complained to police about prostitution. “Operation Breakfast Club” resulted in the arrest of six male sex buyers, all of whom were charged with prostitution-related offenses and released on a $500 bail. The names, ages, and hometowns of all arrestees were released to news outlets. In October 2018, Manchester police arrested six men on prostitution-related charges during a daylight operation around Enright Park in the city center. The operation was prompted by complaints from area neighbors, and the names and photos of the arrestees were publicly released.  In January 2019, five men were arrested during a prostitution sweep in the center city, in the area between Beach and Lincoln streets and Manchester and Laurel streets. Five men faced prostitution and related charges after soliciting sex from a plainclothes detective in exchange for money. All five men were released on personal recognizance and were scheduled to appear the following month in Manchester Circuit Court. In April 2019, another reverse sting resulted in the arrest of eight sex buyers.

Neighborhood initiatives were launched in 2010 to address prostitution and its associated problems. Residents began recording the license plate numbers of men who appeared to be engaged in buying sex and forwarding the information to police.

Loss of employment is another consequence of buying sex that has occurred within the county. For example, in April 2015, the vice chairman of the Manchester School Board resigned after he was arrested during a prostitution sting in Nashua.