Cordova is a small city of under 2,000 residents in northern Alabama, located in Walker County roughly 30 miles northwest of Birmingham. Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities, and other areas of the county. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies.

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. At least one online reverse sting has been documented in the city. In February 2016, the Cordova Police Department arrested ten men in a sting targeting those who sought sex with minors on social media. Called “Operation Safe Kids,” the investigation began after an underage person complained about an older person contacting them over social media. Undercover officers posed as 14- and 15-year-old girls on social media beginning in January; the operation lasted 30 days. Investigators set up a time and place for the suspects to meet who they thought were teen girls for sex, but instead were arrested by police upon their arrival. Their charges included traveling to meet a minor for a sex act, solicitation of a child by computer, and drug charges. Their names, ages, and hometowns were released to the press. One of the men arrested was a convicted sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2011 to sex abuse of a boy younger than 12 years old.