Sturgeon Bay is a city in and the county seat of Door County, Wisconsin. Its population was just under 10,000 at the 2020 Census. The city is well-known regionally for being the largest city of the Door Peninsula, after which the county is named.

Prostitution activity has been well-documented in the city and in other nearby communities  within Door County. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is sex trafficking.

Prostitution related violence – including homicide – has also occurred within the county.

Some cases of local sex trafficking have also involved child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, often referred to in state laws as “child pornography).

Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response.

Demand reduction tactics used in the town include reverse stings, the disclosure of sex buyer identities, and employment loss.

Demand reduction tactics used in the town include the arrest of sex buyers and the public disclosure of their identities.

In September 2017, the Wisconsin’s Attorney General announced the arrest of 25 males in sex trafficking operations conducted across the state. The web-based reverse stings were focused in northern and eastern Wisconsin, and operations focused on people seeking children for sex and johns who solicit prostituted persons. Some of the sex buyers arrested were seeking sex with 14-and 15-year-old children.  Charges include soliciting a prostitute, pandering, soliciting a child for prostitution, attempted second degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, exposing a child to harmful material, and exposing a child to harmful narrations. The Sturgeon Bay Police Department was one of the agencies collaborating in these operations. The Wisconsin reverse sting were part of the National Johns Suppression Initiative. In a news release announcing the results of the stings, the Attorney General said:

“The only reason human trafficking exists is because there is a demand for buying sex. Those creating the demand – the johns who buy victims and the pimps who are exploiting them – are not safe to exploit and coerce people in our state. When I was sworn in as attorney general, I put johns on notice. We are coming for you, and for some – we already got you. DOJ’s Human Trafficking Bureau’s arrests this summer will not be the last.”