Montgomery is the state capital of Alabama and has a population of roughly 200,000. The local commercial sex market has been linked to a wide range of serious crimes, such as child sex trafficking, and the rape and assault of prostituted women. For example, a 2008 trial provided an overview of a serial rape case. Since 2002, police had investigated allegations that a local resident targeted prostituted women and raped them at gunpoint. He was arrested four times, but each time the victims did not appear for the grand jury hearings.  Prosecutors managed to obtain a conviction in April 2008 for a 2006 incident when the man attacked a woman walking down the street who was not involved in prostitution, forcing the victim to have sex at gunpoint. Police and prosecutors describe prostitution as “incredibly dangerous,” with prostituted persons at high risk of rape, assault, robbery, and homicide. In December, 2022, a Montgomery man was sentenced U.S. District Court to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $950,000 in restitution for sex trafficking scheme involving forced prostitution. In June, a jury convicted the man of sex trafficking five victims by force, fraud and coercion. The jury also found him guilty of sex trafficking a minor, and three counts of coercing and enticing an individual to travel in interstate commerce for prostitution purposes. The offender targeted vulnerable victims who struggled with substance abuse issues, and then manipulated their substance abuse problems for his benefit. He increased the victims’ use of heroin and encouraged them to use it intravenously. He then withheld heroin from the victims, causing extremely painful withdrawal sickness, if they violated one of his many controlling rules or otherwise did not provide services to enough commercial sex buyers. He also used violence, threats of violence, and threats to send embarrassing information, photos, or videos to the victims’ loved ones in order to coerce compliance with his rules and to ensure that the victims provided him with sufficient money from prostitution. In addition, he regulated how much and when the victims could eat and confiscated their identity documents and credit cards as part of his coercive scheme to control them. Two co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

In an effort to reduce demand for prostitution that drives all sex trafficking, police have conducted periodic reverse stings. For example, during a four-day sting occurring in 2012, 35 individuals were arrested. The majority were men arrested for solicitation of prostitution. The identities of those arrested are publicized.