Kasson is a city of less than 10,000 residents, located west of Rochester in Dodge County, Minnesota. Prostitution has been documented in the city, and has led to complaints to police. Local residents have also been arrested in adjacent communities for attempting to purchase sex from undercover officers posing as minor girls; in mid-2013, media outlets similarly reported that an underage girl from Kasson had been recovered during an anti-trafficking investigation in the Twin Cities.

In an effort to reduce sex sales in the area, the Kasson Police Department has been conducting reverse stings since at least 2008. That year, four johns were arrested during a reverse sting when they offered money for sex to a police informant at a Kasson apartment being monitored by police. The johns had responded to a decoy online advertisement posted by the department. In addition to facing misdemeanor charges, the men had their names, ages, and cities of residence publicized by local media.