Federalsburg is a town in Caroline County, Maryland, with a population of approximately 2,700 Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities, and in unincorporated areas of the county. 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. For example, in August, 2019, a federal grand jury indicted two Caroline County residents and a Carroll County man who allegedly forced a woman to engage in commercial sex acts. The three were charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; conspiracy to commit kidnapping; and kidnapping. The indictment alleges that they rented hotel rooms for the woman to engage in commercial sex acts, as well as transporting the woman to “out calls” to hotel rooms and other locations to engage in commercial sex, including transporting her across state lines. The woman told police she had met one trafficker in Federalsburg and agreed to perform commercial sex acts at his direction and initially gave him all the money she made from prostitution. For several days she was trafficked in several different cities in the area, and gave all of the money to her captors.  One day they assaulted her with a belt, and then placed it around her neck to restrain her and prevent her from trying to exit the vehicle. When police encountered the victim she was wearing only a white bed sheet and had visible bruising to her neck and jaw. She told troopers that they had assaulted her because she did not make enough money while prostituting.

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.  A law enforcement respondent to the 2021 National Assessment Survey reported that since 2019, cameras have been used in Federalsburg specifically focused on deterring and apprehending sex buyers, and the identities of sex buyers have been publicly disclosed.