Wilton Manors is a city of approximately 11,000 residents located near Oakland Park in Broward County, FL. Prostitution and sex trafficking are documented problems in the city and throughout the county, generating complaints to police from individual residents and neighborhood associations.

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. The city has conducted street-level reverse stings. In January of 1990, a five-hour collaborative operation was conducted between the Wilton Manors Police Department and Oakland Park Police Department. The investigation resulted in the arrests of nine sex buyers. Their names were not released to the public.

Some local arrests of sex buyers are the result of investigating allegations against real victims as opposed to the product of sting operations using police decoys. For example, in 1974, six men were arrested on prostitution and related charges as a result of an investigation into a nightclub by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. The BCSO initiated the investigation after numerous complaints from residents regarding possible prostitution activity occurring at the nightclub. As a result of the investigation, five male sex buyers were arrested for disorderly conduct in addition to the nightclub’s manager, who was arrested for keeping a gambling house to allow prostitution and lewdness. The identities of arrested offenders were included in reports from local news sources.