Lauderhill, officially the City of Lauderhill, is in Broward County, Florida. As of the 2020 census, the city’s population was approximately 74,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been persistent and well-documented problems in the county for decades, and prostitution-related homicides have also occurred in the area. Resident complaints frequently spur police to conduct prostitution and sex trafficking operations. For example, in April 2012, detectives from local, state, and federal agencies arrested more than 100 people in Broward County on a host of charges ranging from prostitution to child pornography. The two-day operation ended with 132 arrests. The sweep included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, state agencies, and police from Lauderhill, Hollywood, Sunrise, and Hallandale Beach. Detectives targeted prostituted persons, online predators, and drug dealers. In addition to the vice arrests, two men were arrested for possessing child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, often called “child pornography” in state criminal laws).

In December 2012, a 20-year-old Lauderhill man was convicted of sex trafficking of minors after prosecutors said he lured young girls to work for him in prostitution in exchange for his protection, the Department of Justice announced. The man was found guilty of two counts of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He had been arrested by Fort Lauderdale Police and FBI agents, who were working another case when the suspect was stopped while attempting to sexually exploit a juvenile. Officials said three victims, who were runaways between 12 and 14, testified that the man prostituted them. Two girls said they were sexually abused by the man hours after meeting him. Evidence presented in court showed the offender paid others to rent hotel rooms in their names and then used the rooms to traffic the girls. The offender’s “customers” found the girls listed on Backpage.com and would then arrange to sexually assault one or more of the minors. All of the earnings from the “dates” went to the offender, but one girl told prosecutors she tried to keep some money for herself. After the trafficker found out she had $20, she said he beat her and stripped off her clothes in front of a room full of people.

In 2019, the city commission changed the ordinance that governed how adult entertainment venues are run. The new ordinances were imposed, saying that adult entertainment businesses can lead to “personal and property crimes, human trafficking, prostitution, the potential spread of disease, lewdness, public indecency, obscenity, illicit drug use and drug trafficking, negative impacts on surrounding properties, urban blight, litter, and sexual assault and exploitation.”