But some folks are critical that the same old tactics just don’t get the best results. Read more at NBCWashington.com…

Police Crack Down on Prostitution, But Will It Work?
Crackdown draws some doubt
By Matthew Stabley

D.C. police will spend the rest of August cracking down on prostitution downtown.

Until Aug. 30, the area around Fifth and K streets is a prostitution-free zone, News4’s Craig Melvin reported. Prostitutes caught working the zone will get a warning, then face a $500 fine and/or 180 days in jail.

“The goal is to try to disrupt prostitution in the area,” said D.C. Police Capt. Mike Gottert.

Under a law approved by the D.C. City Council in 2006, for 10 days D.C. police have broader authority than usual to go after people they suspect of solicitation, Melvin reported.

“They don’t necessarily have to be caught in the act of prostitution,” Gottert said. “If they’re congregating, officers can tell them, ‘Hey, you can’t be in this zone.’”

Craigslist ads do have their peculiar downsides. Read more at The Washington Post…

Men Lured Into Sting For Sex With ‘Teen’
By Dan Morse

The arrest of a longtime Montgomery County firefighter on charges of soliciting sex from a minor was part of a broader online sting operation that netted at least 17 men from a variety of backgrounds, one of whom lives as far away as Ohio, Montgomery County police said Friday.

Police said the sting, which goes back to March, worked this way: Officers placed an advertisement on Craigslist purporting to offer sex. Men who responded were directed to MySpace, where they were told the woman was 16 years old. Police said the men continued their inquiries even after being told the age.

An attorney for four of the men said the operation has been aggressive and unfair because the men were lured with a photograph of an adult-looking woman. “They’re attacking people looking for normal sex, and they’re destroying lives,” said the attorney, Rebecca Nitkin.

In some cases, her clients didn’t realize they were communicating with a purported minor, Nitkin said. Those who did realize her age did not know it is illegal to arrange online for sex with a 16-year-old or thought the claim that she was a teenager was more of a “marketing” tool than reality, Nitkin said.

A police spokesman said the initial Craigslist site might not have disclosed the age. “There’s no 16-year-old area on Craigslist,” Lt. Paul Starks said.

In ensuing exchanges, either by e-mail or text messages, the officers clearly presented themselves as underage, police said.

The sting eventually apprehended men ranging in age from about 17 to 60, Starks said.

Read the whole article at The Washington Examiner…

Councilwoman calls for comprehensive brothel investigation
By: Freeman Klopott

D.C. Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, D-Ward 4, called for a comprehensive investigation into the commercial-area brothels unearthed by an Examiner investigation, and also the many she believes are run in residential areas.

Bowser, who has oversight of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, said Tuesday that she would meet with DCRA investigators to push them to be more aggressive in their pursuit of brothels that hide behind the facade of massage parlors.

“We have to address this comprehensively,” Bowser said. “DCRA has to play a role, the police, and the Office of the Attorney General has to be active, too.”

Her comments were made after an Examiner investigation revealed that three massage parlors, identified by District officials as brothels, remain open despite city lawsuits, actions by regulators and police raids.

“My suspicion is this is more widespread,” Bowser said, adding that she would meet with Attorney General Peter Nickles in the next few days to discuss the issue of brothels that set up shop in residential areas. “[The brothels] are a detriment to the quality of life in residential neighborhoods and commercial areas,” Bowser said.

Two establishments, Supra Inc. and GHS Health Spa, were identified as brothels by Nickles in lawsuits. Both of those remain open despite repeated attempts by Nickles and police to shut them down.

DCRA officials tried to close Jasmine Therapy last month, but dropped the lawsuit after an Office of Administrative Hearings judge said District lawyers failed to follow procedure. A DCRA spokesman said he could not comment, citing an ongoing investigation into the M Street parlor.

Councilman Jack Evans, who represents the Dupont Circle area, home to the brothels found by The Examiner, said he supported “whatever the attorney general is going to do.”

Nickles said he was starting “a far-reaching investigation into this whole area.”

Read the whole story at WUSA9.com…

DC Cop Busted In Prostitution Sting

Authorities say a D.C. police officer was arrested in an Internet sting run by the department’s anti-prostitution unit.

The officer’s attorney says the misdemeanor charge against his client was routinely dismissed last week after he completed a daylong education program that teaches the risks of prostitution.

Authorities alleged that the officer responded to an advertisement investigators placed on Craigslist, an online classified service, and arranged to meet a woman he thought was a prostitute at a downtown hotel last month.

After they set a price for sex, authorities say officers entered the room and arrested the officer. Police say he was among eight men arrested in the sting that night.

Police say there’s an administrative investigation under way.

Another large ring bites the dust. Read the whole story at The DC Examiner…

Men charged with running prostitution ring
By Freeman Klopott

A Maryland man and a man from Miami have been charged for their alleged roles in running a nationwide prostitution ring that took advantage of immigrant women and sent them to Tysons Corner for their first meetings with customers, a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday said.

The manager of the ring, with trysts set up through the Web site MiamiUltimate.com, would enlist immigrant women into his escort service, only to tell them moments before their first meeting that they were expected to be prostitutes, the indictment filed in a Michigan federal court said. After their first trysts in Tysons Corner, the women were flown around the country on Miami Ultimate’s tab, often landing in Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland.

One of the ring’s clients would drive from his home in Boyds to Tysons Corner for trysts set up through Miami Ultimate, the indictment said. Between June 2007 and October 2008, the client became increasingly involved with Miami Ultimate, going from customer, to reviewing trysts on the Web site, to planning a joint prostitution ring in the Washington area with the manager of the site.

The Miami Ultimate Web site isn’t explicit about sexual activity between the “escorts” and “clients.” A disclaimer on the Web site says payment is for modeling and companionship. Anything else that could happen “between two or more consenting adults of legal age is not contracted for.”

The self described ‘Captain Save-a-Ho’ runs afoul of the law, and may need some saving himself.  Read the whole story at The Washington Post…

Authorities In Raid Say Man Sold Sex on Web
Business Might Have Involved 400 Women
By Tom Jackman

A nationwide prostitution ring, allegedly run online by a man living in a Loudoun County townhouse, was discovered and possibly broken Friday when sheriff’s deputies raided the townhouse and arrested the man.

The alleged pimp might have had access to as many as 400 women across the country, Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said yesterday. He is said to have advertised the women online under the name CSH Entertainment. Simpson said CSH was an abbreviation for Captain Save-a-Ho, a phrase that contains a slang term for a prostitute.

The man was charged with one count of procurement or receiving money for prostitution and was being held without bond last night in the Loudoun jail.

Simpson said he did not know how many people might be involved in Captain Save-a-Ho’s operation but speculated that there are others.

Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney James E. Plowman said he is going to meet with sheriff’s investigators Tuesday to discuss additional charges that could be filed.

There was no indication that illicit sexual activity occurred at the man’s residence, Simpson said, adding that the townhouse was the “base of operations.”

Investigators are still piecing together the details, but Simpson said he believed that the prostitution ring started with advertising on such Web sites as Craigslist, Adult Friend Finder and Backpage. When a man wanted to hire a woman for sex, he started the transaction online, and Simpson said the man probably had to have an electronic account to pay.

The man allegedly would contact a woman in the area where the man lived and arrange for the two to communicate online, Simpson said. If arrangements for a meeting were made, the man would pay in advance, and that would enable a middleman to collect his share, Simpson said.

Amazing, but true!  Read the whole story at NBC Washington…

Craigslist Hook-Up Goes Wrong
Alleged shoe attack leads to prostitution charges
By SCOTT BRODBECK

An alleged Craigslist rendezvous led to a high-heeled beating, arrests and prostitution charges in Fairfax County.

A man and woman were arrested Sunday in Falls Church, Va., after making arrangements through the online classified service, according to Fairfax County Police.

The pair was discovered in a room at a hotel on Fairview Park Drive after someone called to report a man and woman fighting, police said.

According to a police statement, an argument erupted over missing money, leading the woman to assault the man with a high-heeled shoe.

Investigators say the man answered an ad on Craigslist and agreed to meet the woman at the hotel.

The man is charged with solicitation of prostitution and possession of marijuana. He was treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital for injuries suffered during the alleged shoe attack.

The woman is charged with prostitution and simple assault.

Funny things come up when your fingers do the walking in a Madam’s phone book! WJLA reports….

Newspaper’s Number on Accused D.C. Madam’s Phone List

A phone number for the Chicago Tribune’s national desk is among those listed in the files of accused “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

A staff blog report on the newspaper’s Web site says the number for the paper’s national desk in Chicago appeared on the phone records for a January third, 2001, phone call that lasted about 2.5 minutes. A newspaper spokesman Tribune reporters found the number while scanning the phone records of Palfrey’s company to determine if any lawmakers the paper covers were included in the list.

Palfrey faces federal racketeering charges for allegedly running a prostitution ring. She says it was a legal escort service and has released her phone records to get help tracking down former clients who she hopes will back her claim.

The Tribune is trying to determine why the call was received, but hasn’t uncovered any answers. The newspaper says several people would have had access to the phone.

Where millions of people assemble for any reason, expect a spike in ‘business!’ Read the whole story at WUSA9.com….

Prostitution Concerns For Inauguration

Among the millions of people traveling to DC for the inauguration, there could be a fair share of prostitutes and sex traffickers.

It is no secret to anyone who studies the world’s oldest profession that big events are magnets for prostitution. From major sporting events like the World Cup to political conventions, authorities count on a surge in sex trafficking during those weekends. In the United States, many of the women involved are natives.

“We’re the only advanced Western Democracy in which we have a huge number of our own trafficking victims,” said Professor Louise Shelley, a prostitution expert at George Mason University.

Shelley said in her decades of researching the sex industry, one factor remains constant. The ages of the majority of the women involved would shock any parent.

“Most of the people who’ve been trafficked into prostitution are our own youth,” she said. “We have 100,000 to 300,000 of them. And the Washington area is one of the key areas in the United States for this juvenile trafficking. It ranks up there among the top 14 cities.”

A US Navy officer was moonlighting as a call girl – here’s a glimpse at her situation, and her pay grade. Read the whole story at The Navy Times…

Navy: Call girl actually retired at O-3
By Andrew Tilghman

A female officer who admitted working as a high-end prostitute for the “D.C. Madam” was allowed to retire as an O-3 — not an O-4, as was previously stated by a Navy spokeswoman.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter “did make the decision to retire her as a lieutenant in determining that she did not serve satisfactorily as a lieutenant commander,” Winter’s spokeswoman Capt. Beci Brenton said Wednesday.

Another Navy spokeswoman, Lt. j.g. Jennifer Windstein, told Navy Times on Nov. 25 that she was allowed to retire as a lieutenant commander.

“We made an error,” said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. John Daniels.

In federal court in April, the woman testified about her stint as an escort at the trial of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, a California businesswoman who came to be known as the “D.C. Madam.” Dickinson said she charged $275 for a 90-minute session, typically keeping $130 for herself and sending $145 to Palfrey.

The 38-year-old divorced mother of three enlisted in the Navy after high school in Tennessee and served as an aviation electronics technician third class. She received her commission in 1993. She served as the Naval Academy food services officer, responsible for feeding 4,000 midshipmen, and occasionally taught a Navy leadership class in the academy’s ethics department.

In April, the Navy fired her from her job at the Navy Supply Corps School in Georgia, gave her a letter of reprimand and forced her to go on indefinite leave.