Thibodaux is a city of approximately 15,000 residents, located in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, about 15 miles northwest of Houma. Prostitution activity has been well-documented within the city, and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies. Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has been targeted by local law enforcement agencies. For example, in March 2013, undercover women officers from the Thibodaux Police Department conducted a street-level reverse sting that resulted in the arrest of two male sex buyers. The arrestees’ names, ages, and hometowns were released to the media.

Some local arrests of sex buyers are the result of investigating allegations against real victims as opposed to the product of sting operations using police decoys. For example, in November, 2018, two Thibodaux residents were arrested on prostitution and drug charges after police were called out to Martin Luther King Park to investigate a suspicious vehicle. When Thibodaux Police Department officers arrived at the park, the suspect vehicle drove away with no lights and led officers on a brief pursuit while committing several traffic violations.  After the vehicle stopped in the 200 block of Sanders Street, both occupants were ordered out of the car. The suspects had been attempting to perform sexual acts in the park. The man in the car told police he picked up the woman and brought her to the park, where he paid her to perform the sexual acts. Police along with a drug-sniffing dog later found suspected powder cocaine and marijuana inside a suitcase inside the vehicle’s trunk. Both suspects were booked into the Lafourche Parish jail. The man was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, soliciting for prostitution, possession of marijuana, no headlight, driving with a suspended license, possession of drug paraphernalia and disregarding a stop sign.