Alliance is a small city of about 22,000 residents, located near Akron in northeastern Ohio. In February 2012, the Alliance Police Department conducted its first web sting to identify and apprehend sex buyers attempting to buy sex online. Officers posted a decoy advertisement to Backpage.com. When men responded to the listing, an undercover female officer arranged to meet them at a local hotel. As the sex buyers arrived and offered money in exchange for sexual services, they were apprehended by police. All arrestees’ names were released to the media.

In January 2014, a man was arrested during a reverse sting in Alliance and charged with possessing criminal tools and soliciting for prostitution. According to police, the suspect had placed an online ad soliciting sexual activity to which an undercover officer agreed to meet him at his residence. The suspect was taken into custody and arraigned in Alliance Municipal Court. After his arrest in August 2013 on identical charges, he was sentenced to a $500 fine plus costs and 30 days in jail, with all days but five suspended on condition of his good behavior for one year. The second charges could yield sentences of up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine, plus imposition of any suspended jail term.