Jasper County is the southernmost county in South Carolina, with about 30,000 residents. Its county seat is Ridgeland and its largest city is Hardeeville. Prostitution is a well-documented problem in the county. For example, in December 2020 the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office arrested four people in Hardeeville during a raid targeting prostitution in the area. The Sheriff’s Office, along with Hardeeville police, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office conducted the prostitution operation. Along with the charges for prostitution, the operation yielded the seizure of six guns and narcotics.

Among the local efforts to combat these problems are the use of tactics targeting consumer-level demand. For example, a prostitution sting in July 2017 led to 10 arrests, according to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office. JCSO conducted the reverse sting operation in the Hardeeville area with help from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office and the Hardeeville Police Department. The operation was from 6 p.m. on a Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday. JCSO had received complaints for several months prior to the operation. The sting involved motels off Exit 5 on Interstate 95. The identities of the arrested men were released to news outlets.  A reverse sting in hotels in the Hardeeville area in March 2018 led to the arrest of four people on prostitution charges.