Elmsford is a village of approximately 5,000 residents located within the borders of the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. Prostitution and violence against women in prostitution have been documented in the area, including one incident in which a prostituted woman was stabbed, and others were raped at knife-point by a prospective sex buyer at an Elmsford hotel. Despite its small size, local law enforcement has taken a proactive approach in reducing the demand for prostitution in the village by conducting periodic large-scale reverse stings.

In July 2007, officers from the Elmsford Police Department assisted their counterparts at the Greenburgh Police Department in conducting a web sting that resulted in the arrest of 14 sex buyers. In January 2008, media outlets reported that 66 people had been arrested during a nine-month investigation into ads on Craigslist.com. The site advertised sexual services at local hotels, and the “hotels in the town of Greenburgh, city of Rye and villages of Rye Brook and Elmsford were used for the hookups between March and December 2007.” The identities of the individuals arrested were not released. Still, law enforcement stated that “the men snared in the roundup included medical professionals, business owners, real estate developers, and civil servants.”