Another report at the boom in the erotic services business on Craigslist. It never ceases to amaze me how sharp journalists and law enforcement just ‘discovered’ this trend. Slow on the uptake.  Read the whole story at Knoxnews…

Craigslist is hotbed of online prostitution

Crackdown in progress; sellers, clients trying to stay a step ahead
By Jessie Pounds

In Craigslist’s erotic services category, the phrase “hump day special” conveys a bit of a double meaning.

The online community forum has become host to a virtual red-light district for prostitutes to ply their trade.

The problem has emerged in cities across the country, including here in Tennessee in metro areas such as Knoxville, Nashville and the Tri-Cities.

But law enforcement agencies are catching up with the sex workers, pimps and customers. Detectives are working at co-opting the online market’s coded language for their own sting and reverse-sting operations.

“Tri-Cities has really been hurt with it,” said Chris Stein, an investigator with the Johnson City Police Department, referring to what he sees as major growth in online prostitution advertisements.

Nonetheless, he feels the JCPD efforts are having an impact, adding, “I can honestly say that we’ve put a hurt on Craig’s as of late.”

Stein and partner Greg Norris started monitoring Craigslist and doing stings about eight or nine months ago, after reading an article about the trend in Police Beat magazine. Since that time, they say, they’ve arrested around 20 to 25 people involved in online prostitution, including about 15 off Craigslist. Similarly, Vice Detective Cliff Ferguson of the Kingsport Police Department says his department has arrested about a dozen people for online prostitution each year for the past few years.

In Nashville, where police first began monitoring Internet prostitution in 2006, the vice unit has made more than 300 Internet-related arrests of sex workers and customers, and 187 in the past year alone, mostly from Craigslist.

According to Sgt. Jason Duncan, the vice unit now focuses predominantly on online prostitution, leaving enforcement against street prostitutes and johns up to the geographic patrols.