Beloit is a city of about 37,000 residents in Rock County, Wisconsin.  It is located in the southernmost part of the state, bordering illinois.  Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities, generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Sex trafficking has also been documented in the city.  In 2013, representatives of the Beloit Police Department said that there are several arrests each year in Beloit for prostitution, and usually involve illicit drugs.  They do not have the staffing to monitor websites to see if someone is soliciting, and said that “Unless we have a complaint of some type of activity like that occurring we don’t have the resources to actively investigate those types of crimes.”  In 2013 the Daily News searched backpage.com, under the “escort” listing, and found roughly 10 women offering their services who listed Beloit as their coverage area, and 20 postings for nearby Janesville. In April 2018, a drug-involved prostitution business employing as many as 20 women was using hotels in Janesville and Beloit, according to a criminal complaint filed in Rock County Court. In February, 2022, a Beloit man was on trial for using the drug addiction of an adult woman and a teenager to coerce them into prostitution.  The defendant allegedly knew the woman had a drug addiction and “held it over her head,” manipulating her to perform commercial sex acts, according to the Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case.  In October, 2022, a 41-year-old local man was found guilty of the following charges: Human Trafficking, Repeater (felony); Neglect of a Child, Repeater (Misdemeanor); Keeping a Place of Prostitution, Repeater (felony); Maintaining a Drug Trafficking Place, Repeater (felony); Possession with Intent to Deliver Cocaine Near a School, Repeater (felony). The evidence presented at the trial established that the man exploited vulnerable young women with shelter and drugs while running a prostitution ring at his home, and he also exposed his young child to drugs and prostitution activities.

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. For example, in March 2019, the Beloit Police Department participated in a joint operation with multiple police departments that resulted in the arrests of three sex buyers.  During the operation, 25 to 30 men responded to an ad and reached out to request sex acts from undercover police. Authorities arrested the men on suspicion of pandering after they madea arrangements and then appeared at the hotel to purchase sex.  All three were arrested and faced misdemeanor charges, and were taken into custody at the Rock County Jail. The men were all identified in news releases, and were tentatively charged with misdemeanor pandering, and one was booked into the Rock County Jail on a parole violation. The sting took place at a hotel on Midland Road, with the hotel providing three rooms for free to the police. Agencies taking part in the sting included the Janesville, Beloit, Clinton and town of Beloit Police Departments, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office, the Janesville Fire Department and the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.