New Britain is a city of over 74,000 residents in central Connecticut, near Hartford. Problems associated with the local commercial sex market have been well-documented, including sex trafficking and related child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).  There have also been several local cases of sexual assaults and murders specifically targeting prostituted women, and men have also been set up for robbery while trying to buy sex.

Police have conducted reverse stings in the city periodically since at least 2000 (and possibly before), usually in response to complaints from residents and business owners and managers. From 2008 to 2012, reverse stings in New Britain each yielded between 10 and 23 arrests of sex buyers. In a reverse sting in September 2012, New Britain Police used a “three-pronged approach”: (1) arresting women engaged in street prostitution; (2) replacing the arrested women with police decoys, to focus on arresting sex buyers, and (3) maintaining high-visibility patrols in the areas focused upon in these prostitution operations. The names and ages of arrested sex buyers have been routinely publicized.