Pleasanton is a city of about 78, residents in Alameda County , California. Prostitution and sex trafficking of minors has been documented in the city. In and , police ran several operations to combat prostitution in massage parlors that advertised online: e.
Pleasanton had the highest number of parlors listed in the Tri-Valley with 12, followed by Dublin 9 , San Ramon 8 , and Danville and Livermore 3 each. Local police officials said they were aware of that site along with several other similar websites. In response, police have used tactics that focus on combating consumer-level demand.
For example, in May , eleven people were arrested in Pleasanton during a web-based reverse sting. The arrests occurred in a hotel on Bernal Ave. Undercover officers used a fictitious profile to create an online ad to attract buyers seeking prostitution.
In the 8-hour operation, over 40 people responded to the ad. Ten men agreed to pay for sex and went to the hotel where the undercover sting happened. One of the men thought he was meeting a year-old girl. Only one of the 11 men arrested was from Pleasanton. Their charges included solicitation of prostitution, resisting arrest, pandering, and meeting with a minor with the intention of engaging in lewd or lascivious behavior. All 11 people were booked into Santa Rita Jail.
Livermore and Hayward police helped in the sting. Pleasanton police said the May operation was not the first they had conducted. In May , a similar operation produced the arrest of seven sex buyers. The Pleasanton PD stated:. We work to address these individually as they arise but also do occasional proactive enforcement such as this to discourage the purchasing of commercial sex. This particular operation was focused on the buyer side to send a message we are not going to tolerate this activity in our community.
