Madison County is a county of approximately 260,000 residents in southwestern Illinois, right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Its county seat is Edwardsville, and the largest city is Granite City. The city of Alton in Madison County has been known to use demand-reduction tactics frequently to fight prostitution. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity has been documented locally since at least the early 1990s. Cases of assaults on individuals in prostitution and the killing of sex buyers have also been reported.

Among their efforts to reduce commercial sex sales and related crimes, the Alton Police Department (APD) has conducted reverse stings targeting individuals attempting to purchase sex, sometimes with the assistance of county officials. The APD has conducted such stings at street level since at least 2003, if not earlier. Officers and city officials have reported to local media that investigations have, at times, been launched in response to complaints from residents and businesses.

In June 2003, a Madison County grand jury indicted 35 people on prostitution charges in Alton and Granite City. The indictments included 10 women who were charged with prostitution and 20 male sex buyers who were charged with solicitation of a sexual act. The undercover investigation was run by the Alton and Granite City police departments in conjunction with the Madison County State’s Attorney’s office. The “Weed and Seed” program, with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, focused on prostitution-related offenses in various neighborhoods in Alton and Granite City. The names, ages, and hometowns of those arrested were also released to the press.

In 2007, APD officers conducted a web-based reverse sting, they did this by creating a decoy advertisement on a website known for prostitution solicitation. They then, placed a female undercover officer and support team in a local hotel to arrest sex buyers who responded to the listing and arranged to meet the decoy. Similarly, in January 2016, the APD intercepted seven sex buyers after the men responded to a decoy web listing placed by law enforcement. Soon after their arrests, the offenders’ names, ages, hometowns, and arrest photos were released to the public and carried in the Alton Telegraph.