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11-19-07, 08:16
This FYI is from today's PPH. It sounds like they're bagging a few of us and I wonder if anyone here has felt the pinch.

Web offers prostitutes Net profit

Local police often set up sting operations, but they have other priorities, too.

By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer November 19, 2007

Sometimes the hardest part of a police officer's job is finding the
criminals. Other times, such as with prostitutes, that's the easy
part.

Prostitutes are making it really easy these days, taking
advantage of the latest Internet advertising phenomenon by
placing free classified advertisements on craigslist.

Craigslist, where shoppers can find everything from used
surfboards to rare Beanie Babies, has become a popular spot
among prostitutes advertising for new clients.

Over the past year, police across the country have been arresting
prostitutes who use craigslist to advertise, but it is relatively new
in Maine.

A recent check showed more than 100 ads posted over the past
week in Maine's erotic services section, many of them clearly
offering sexual gratification for money, in spite of the craigslist
disclaimer that prohibits advertising anything illegal. The site's
erotic services page even encourages people to flag as
"prohibited" anything illegal, including "offers for or the
solicitation of prostitution."

The company says it established the erotic services category
because ads for "escort services" and "sensual massage" were
irritating customers who used the regular personals and services
categories. The company says the ads appear in other media,
but that craigslist allows users to flag ads promoting illegal
activity so they can be deleted.

The site does not pre-screen or pre-approve content, and
advertisers usually don't come right out and offer sex for money.
However, they leave little to the imagination. One reads: "It's 160
kisses for the hour. Email me back and ask me about the 300
kisses." In some cases, they dispense with the code and just say
$160.

"Back in the day, when I first started, prostitutes had a couple
houses -- massage parlors -- and a lot of street-level stuff,"
said Detective Sgt. Robert Martin, head of the Portland police
intelligence unit. "You would find a dozen girls out on any given
night."

That was 20 years ago, when the city had a major problem with
prostitutes working the area around Deering and Congress
streets.

The Internet and enforcement have helped move the illegal sex
trade out of neighborhoods and into private homes or at least
hotels, where people use the computer or the telephone to
arrange a meeting.

Whether prostitutes advertise on the Web or in the local
alternative weekly newspaper, it doesn't change the underlying
crime; and it's only a matter of time before the ads elicit a
response from authorities.

Portland police arrested two women on prostitution charges
during a sting late last month at the Doubletree Hotel on
Congress Street.

One woman was contacted by responding to an ad in a local
alternative newspaper, the other through an ad on craigslist.
Both are scheduled to appear in court next month.

The Portland Press Herald does not name people accused of sex
crimes until they appear in court.

In each case, officers responded to the ads and arranged for
meetings. The women agreed to work as strippers -- which is
legal -- but then offered to perform sex acts for more money,
which is illegal.

Martin said police started cracking down in 2001 on prostitutes
who advertise on the Internet.

"With the advent of the Internet, we started seeing Web sites pop
up for escort services," he said, describing them as offering
strippers for bachelor parties and the like.

Some were only strippers, but many offered sex acts when
undercover officers met them at hotel rooms.

Typically, a woman advertising as an escort or stripper charges
about $150, sometimes more if she needs to catch a cab. Half
the money goes to the entity that set up the meeting, half to the
woman.

A sex act costs extra, Martin said.

It can be dangerous work. Women sometimes hire escorts of
their own, bodyguards, to wait outside and make sure they
aren't injured or robbed.

Officers are able to bring charges in about three-quarters of the
arranged encounters; although once a woman gets arrested,
word often spreads quickly and later dates are canceled, Martin
said. Police have set rules they have to follow, and typically they
wait for the woman to make an offer.

The enforcement hardly puts a dent in the practice. The trade is
too lucrative and easily offsets the fine of a couple of hundred
dollars that a conviction brings, he said.

Martin called up a Web page of a local escort service and noted
that most of the women listed with their pictures on the first
page had been arrested on prostitution charges, some multiple
times.

"They tell you it's the last time. They only did it to pay rent," he
said. The reality is they are often addicted to drugs, or else their
boyfriends are, he said.

Police also don't devote all a department's resources to the
crime.

"We have to prioritize our enforcement efforts," said Capt. Vern
Malloch, head of Portland's directed patrol, which made last
month's arrests. "The directed patrol philosophy is to focus on
issues in specific geographical areas. If there are complaints in
Bayside of prostitution, we'll address prostitution. If it's
skateboarders in the Old Port causing traffic problems, that
would be the priority."

A directed patrol also checks to make sure defendants awaiting
trial, including drug dealers and domestic abusers, are abiding
by bail conditions, so cracking down on prostitution is an
occasional event.

Running a prostitution sting can be labor-intensive.

"You need the decoy officer. You need people to monitor the
operation. You need usually a couple hotel rooms in the same
hotel," Martin said. "You might call a dozen places and get them
spread out," requiring an entire shift.

One technique that does affect the trade is the reverse stings
that police carry out, in which they set up fake ads with fake
pictures to coax customers to a location. The men who respond
are charged with soliciting a prostitute.

It's not clear how many of the craigslist ads might actually be
police officers, and Martin wouldn't say.

Bill Buxton
11-26-07, 12:43
Lots of new gals on CL and lots of funny areas where they are located.Seems like I would surely pass on anything listed there now.


B.B...

Big Bobby35
11-27-07, 13:33
Traffic triples. Kinda makes ya wonder on CL. Absolutely zero safe in the Great White North of Maine.

Better luck with bars for local trash. They gotta be good at something.

Bill Buxton
11-28-07, 14:45
The amount of gals now on CL is at an all time high in the great north country.I would not strike one key or call one number as of now to request the service of the unknown providers.

This is not a big city setting around here and LE knows who is up to what around here also.They are STEALING oil trucks for heating oil up here now, so I would dare say a person could get jacked up using the gals from CL also.Use your head and caution when dealing with unknown providers that are new on the local track.


B.B...