Online solicitations of girls and women for sex reached nearly 16,000 in the metro area in the first quarter of 2016, Washington County's major crimes prosecutor said Tuesday.
All the ads collected came from a single website — Backpage.com — which means the total number of metro-area solicitations would be even higher if other websites were included, Imran Ali told Washington County commissioners during a board workshop.
He said he found the sheer number staggering, especially in light of publicity over law enforcement crackdowns on human trafficking.
"This is something that's emerging, that's growing. It's a huge problem," he said, describing a "demand for juvenile sex" where especially vulnerable girls are being targeted.
Ali said that many of the solicitations almost certainly were made for underage girls, an aggressive trend that has alarmed law enforcement agencies. He added that it's impossible to know how many because of concealed identities and ages.
The 15,742 solicitations were detected and compiled by criminal analyst Amy Schroeder, who works with Ali on a special initiative launched by County Attorney Pete Orput to attack a problem that's exploded on the Internet.
Orput started the initiative with a two-year grant. He said Washington County is now working with other metro-area counties to help start similar investigations.
"A year ago I didn't realize how pervasive a problem this is," Orput said.
