Anderson is a city of roughly 26,000 residents located in western South Carolina, about 20 miles southwest of Greenville. The city has a substantial prostitution problem, judging by the level of complaints police receive from residents and businesses and by the presence of neighborhood groups focused on addressing prostitution and of nonprofit organizations devoted to working with survivors of commercial sex in Anderson.  Reverse stings have occurred there since at least 2005, and probably before.  In a 2009 operation, one man was arrested for soliciting, while another team using a decoy “john” arrested a woman who was HIV positive and selling sex.