East Palo Alto is a city of approximately 29,000 residents located in San Mateo County, CA near the City of Palo Alto, situated roughly equidistant between San Francisco and San Jose. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been reported in the community for several decades, as well as reports of homicide cases involving prostituted women.

On at least one occasion, local law enforcement have incorporated tactics that serve to arrest and deter sex buyers. For example, in December 2004, the San Jose Mercury News announced that East Palo Alto Police Department officers and San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department deputies had arrested seven individuals during a prostitution sting in the Bell Street Park area. During the sting, “male and female plainclothes officers were approached and solicited for sex,” according to an EPAPD representative interviewed. Four men and three women were arrested as a result. It is unclear if their identities were disclosed in press at that time.

In October 2006, the Palo Alto Daily News reported that the EPAPD Police Chief planned “to ask the San Mateo County District Attorney and Superior Court to add community service to a sentence if [a] person pleads no contest to buying drugs or soliciting a prostitute” in the city. It is unclear if this suggested ordinance and additional penalty was ultimately implemented.