It’s always reassuring to read that law enforcement is a good 10-15 years behind the newest trends! Read more at WALB.com…

Hookers are giving up street-walking for web surfing

Police say the world’s oldest profession has gone high-tech. More prostitutes are leaving the street corner and turning to the web.

“What we are seeing is just outright advertisements for sexual services,” Deputy Chief Jaime Ayala of the Arlington, TX, Police Department said.

On one website well-known for its “adult services” advertisements, one out of every five ads in Dallas-Fort Worth originates in Arlington.

“We have received a number of complaints about what appears to be obvious postings of what appears to be prostitution,” Ayala said.

The Arlington Police Department is now launching operation “You Never Know” to fight online solicitation.

Undercover officers will be surfing the web, posing as prostitutes and johns.

“If you respond to an ad or place one, you never know who might be on the other end of the line,” Ayala said.

The idea that a sports event draws 50,000 to 100,000 escorts to the host city is absurd.  It’s just the type of info that ‘nonprofit groups’ like to peddle.  While big events mean more people, which means more money, and pro escorts will follow, those numbers are just fantasy.  Read more at NBCDFW.com…

Prostitutes Look to Score at All-Star Game: Cops
Dallas police say areas hosting big sports events see influx of prostitutes
By ELLEN GOLDBERG

North Texas is expecting thousands of visitors for the NBA All-Star Weekend, but Dallas police are also making plans to deal with some unwelcome visitors — prostitutes.

“We have been told from other cities that there is going to be an increase in prostitutes,” Lt. Christina Smith said.

A nonprofit group in Phoenix estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes flooded its city during Super Bowl XLII last year. Dallas police said they don’t know what to expect from the All-Star Game.

“I think it’s safe to say we will see some girls that are the traditional street prostitute, and fair to say, we can expect more of the escort-service type of girls,” Smith said.

The department is taking a page from the playbooks of other cities that have hosted high-profile sporting events, such as the NBA All-Star Game.

To prepare, the vice unit is adjusting officers’ schedules and hours so that all hands are on deck next week. Dallas police said they will focus on prostitution hotspots, such as Harry Hines Boulevard, as well as high-end hotels.

Some guys using Craigslist to try and secure some TLC got arrested for their trouble. Read more at KRISTV.com…

Online Prostitution Sting Leads to Five Arrests

The Corpus Christi Police Department went undercover on craigslist this weekend and arrested five men who they say were trying to solicit a prostitute.

Police say they posted ads on Craigslist trying to attract people looking to hire a prostitute. They say it was just part of routine checks they do on networking websites but this is the first time they have actually posted an ad online; and they were able to make five arrests.

…

Police say the men all met up with an undercover female police officer Saturday afternoon and verbally agreed to pay for a sex act.

The vice division says the internet isn’t as big of a problem as prostitution on the streets but it’s still a good tool for their ongoing crack down.

“It doesn’t seem to be the biggest source, I mean most of it is street level prostitution but randomly going through craigslist and other websites that do these kind of networking sites and stuff you can see that its there,” Captain John Houston with the Narcotics/Vice Investigation Division.

Read more at WOAI.com…

Exotic dancers arrested during raid at strip clubs
by Demond Fernandez

Eight exotic dancers and four managers are under arrest after a raid at a couple of local strip clubs. Investigators say workers at those businesses were breaking the law by performing without any clothing.

One woman tried hiding her face from News 4 WOAI’s camera as police led her to a patrol car. Detectives say that dancer is under arrest now for what she wasn’t hiding from her customers.

“We came in to do our inspection and found some girls dancing in an all-nude state,” said San Antonio Police VICE squad Lieutenant Andy Rodriguez.

Full- and semi-nudity is illegal at strip clubs in San Antonio. That’s not stopping workers at some clubs from doing it according to Lt. Rodriguez and the City and District Attorney’s Offices.

News 4 WOAI was on the scene as undercover officers arrested four dancers at Paradise Gentlemen’s Club off I-35. Two managers were also arrested for allegedly allowing nudity to happen at the East side club.

At the same time, additional officers were raiding XTC Cabaret. There, another four dancers and two managers were arrested for breaking ordinances against nudity, according to police. Detectives say some of the arrested workers claim they didn’t know dancing nude was against the law.

Read more at The Baytown Sun…

Dallas police aim to help, not jail, prostitutes
By JEFF CARLTON

It was nearly midnight in a cramped mobile courtroom in the back of an 18-wheeler, and a prostitute in a Tweety Bird shirt was apologizing to a judge for falling asleep during her hearing.

She hadn’t slept for three days and was coming down from a crack high, she explained. The combination left her too impaired to make a choice that only Dallas offers prostitutes: Go to rehab or go to jail.

With those options, the city is taking a new approach to the world’s oldest profession. Police treat prostitutes as sex crime victims, offering many a chance to clean up and get off the streets.

The program’s advocates acknowledge its success has been limited – about half of the 375 women have chosen rehab, and just 21 have turned their lives around. But authorities say they’re gaining the women’s trust and have gotten leads on unsolved crimes.

The program could soon spread beyond Dallas. More than 200 law enforcement agents from the U.S. and Canada attended the National Prostitution Diversion conference here in November. Since then, groups from Edmonton, Atlanta and Fort Worth have asked for more information about the program.

“We are the pioneers, I suppose,” said Renee Breazeale, program director for Homeward Bound, a nonprofit detoxification and counseling center in Dallas. “It’s the only police-led program and represents a change of culture for law enforcement.”

The program starts with a monthly roundup of prostitutes in an area health officials consider the national epicenter of syphilis. Dallas vice police have identified more than 1,300 prostitutes working four truck stops that serve more than 2,000 big rigs a day.

“Truckers were conducting counter-surveillance for prostitutes,” Dallas police Sgt. Louis Felini said. “They let them use CB radios to advertise prostitution and drugs. As soon as a squad car entered the lot, every truck driver along I-20 knew how many cops and where they were.”

Arresting prostitutes accomplished little. Many considered going to jail part of the cost of doing business and were back at the truck stops within 48 hours, Felini said.

Deciding to try something new, he found five of the worst-off women spots in Homeward Bound. All eventually gave up prostitution, and Felini had an idea.

“If we were able to do that for the worst of the worst, then maybe we could do that on a much larger scale,” he said.

His brainstorm became the Prostitution Diversion Initiative. Police set up a staging area once a month in a vacant lot near the truck stops. Four mobile command trucks surround folding tables and chairs where social service workers set up shop. The action usually begins about 7 p.m. and runs until 3 a.m.

For those considering going to those private shi-shi get togethers where the cool escorts trade witticisms with those cool clients, realize that attending the party might cause you some grief.

Read more at KHOU.com…

Houston cops crash Christmas party for hookers, johns
by Jeff McShan

Houston police crashed a Christmas party for high-priced call girls and their customers last week at a Midtown club called Element.

Tuesday night, police were back out rounding up the men who allegedly paid for sex at the party.

“This is a party that was organized on a Web site that caters to mainly prostitution,” said Lt. C. Vasquez with HPD’s vice division.

Members of the site called ASPD.net chat about Houston escorts and even write reviews. Warnings are posted about police activity, and which escorts can be trusted.

Members must be invited to join, and then a check is done to verify their employment. Operators wanted to make sure no cops were allowed.

But undercover HPD vice officers infiltrated the site and became members.

“It took about four months to get in there, from beginning to end,” Vasquez said.

At the party, HPD undercover officers found enough evidence to charge 12 people with prostitution.

As soon as the arrests happened, members of aspd.net began to chat about the raid.

Read more at Bloomberg.com…

Craigslist Not Responsible for Sex-For-Hire Ads, Judge Rules
By Andrew M. Harris

Craigslist won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, that accused the classified ads Web site of creating a public nuisance by providing a forum for prostitution services.

U.S. District Judge John F. Grady in Chicago threw out the lawsuit filed by Sheriff Tom Dart, finding that the site was only a conduit for others to publish the ads and wasn’t legally responsible for their content.

“Sheriff Dart may continue to use Craigslist’s website to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content,” Grady said in a 20-page decision posted on the court’s electronic docket yesterday. “But he cannot sue Craigslist for their conduct.”

An interesting article about the online pay-for-sex scene. Read more at redOrbit.com…

Internet Fuels Virtual Subculture For Sex Trade

The Internet has spawned a virtual subculture of “johns” who share information electronically about prostitution, potentially making them harder to catch, according to a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University criminologist.

The research by MSU’s Thomas Holt and Kristie Blevins of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte challenges the common perception that sex customers act alone and do not interact for fear of reprisal or scorn. The study appears in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

Holt, assistant professor of criminal justice, said today’s Web-savvy johns use the Internet to solicit prostitutes and to provide each other with warnings of prostitution hot zones and stings, which can hamper the efforts of law enforcement officials.

But the more police become familiar the johns’ Web activities, the more it can help them zero in on the perpetrators, Holt added.

“The growth of these deviant subcultures has made it more difficult for law enforcement,” said Holt, who has helped police devise prostitution stings. “On the other hand, it gives us a new opportunity to use the way the offenders communicate to better target their activities.”

The study analyzed prostitution Web forums in 10 U.S. cities with the highest rates of prostitution arrests: Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Elizabeth, N.J.; Forth Worth, Texas; Hartford, Conn.; Inglewood, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Memphis, Tenn.

In the Web forums, the johns provide detailed information on the location of sexual services on the streets and indoors, as well as ways to identify specific providers, information on costs and personal experiences with providers.

The open nature of the forums led the johns to carefully disguise their discussions with a unique language, or argot, based largely on code and acronyms. This argot may help johns and sex workers to avoid legal sanctions and any social stigma associated with participating in the sex trade, the researchers said.

Read more at WKXAN.com…

South Austin prostitution sting nets 19
Undercover officers attract ‘Johns’
by Erin Cargile

Undercover Austin police attracted nearly 20 ‘Johns’ on South Austin streets in two nights. It was the first prostitution sting in the area in two years.

Police Lt. Joe Robles said the department decided to concentrate efforts in South Austin after a crime analyst noticed 18 sexual assaults had occurred in the area since January 1, 2009. Half of the victims were strippers and prostitutes.

Wednesday night 16 men were arrested after making deals with the undercover officers standing on corners. Most of the arrests occurred at the intersection of Burton Drive and Woodland Avenue.

By 9:30 p.m. Thursday night police had arrested three men on South Congress close to Ben White. Police said that is also the area where prostitutes were arrested in mid-September. Police arrested 20 women during two separate stings.

Each time, an undercover female officer posts up on a corner. They are typically approached by a ‘John’ in a vehicle who waves the prostitute over or honks. She walks over to the vehicle and the two agree on a price for sex. Once the verbal agreement is made, a crime has been committed and the arrest team moves in.

Well that just blows…my mind. Read more at We Are Austin…

Police: woman asked for $1 million for oral sex

Austin police say that a woman offered them oral sex during a sting operation and originally asked for a hefty price.

The Austin Police Department said two officers were driving around Southeast Austin early Saturday morning when they found a 38-year-old woman who said she was “working”.

One of the undercover officers asked Garcia if she would give him oral sex. He asked her how much and she said “I’ve been asking for one million, but no one has paid that yet.”

The officer then offered $25, which Garcia accepted. The officers then arrested her.