Simi Valley, a city of about 126,000 residents, is located in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, situated to the north between Ventura and Santa Clarita.  Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city and surrounding areas. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is sex trafficking.

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. For example, in late 2012, the Simi Valley Police Department placed a decoy online advertisement for “escort services,” which resulted in the arrest of six men on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. Responding to residents’ complaints about websites which appeared to offer solicitations for prostitution, police began monitoring several sites offering therapeutic massage. These, in reality, provided sexual services at storefront businesses while other sites offered commercial sex at off-site locations. Police began receiving responses to their decoy ad within five minutes of its posting, with the men asking about the cost of specific sexual acts. An undercover female officer set up meetings with the callers; those who went to the meeting spot were cited on suspicion of misdemeanor soliciting prostitution. Similar web-based reverse stings have been conducted subsequently, including one in May 2016 that resulted in the arrest of sex buyers whose names, ages, cities of residence, and criminal charges were released in the media. Though most demand reduction efforts in Simi Valley appear to have been led by the SVPD, the Ventura County Star reported that a small-scale web sting conducted by SVPD officers in March 2016 was launched in conjunction with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

In October, 2021, the Simi Valley Police Department, in conjunction with the Ventura County Human Trafficking Task Force, conducted a sting operation at a hotel in Simi Valley. The goal was to rescue victims of sex trafficking and identify and arrest not only their traffickers but their “customers.” Over the course of five hours, officers and detectives communicated with multiple victims in an attempt to provide them with resources to exit the sex trade. During the operation, officers and detectives used multiple social media websites to pose as both prostituted persons and sex buyers. Three men were arrested for attempting to “solicit a prostitute.”  While interacting with one of the victims, officers learned that her trafficker was in the area of the operation, and located and detained the man. In February, 2023, a similar operation led to the arrest of four male sex buyers.