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from The Telegraph
June 24, 2007
‘Johns’ get stung:
Prostitution crackdown leads to 15 arrests
By LINDA N. WELLER
The Telegraph
ALTON — Police charged an airline pilot, a minister, a church deacon, a Maytag repairman and 15 other people in a recent two-day prostitution sting, with some “johns” setting up dates via the Internet.
In the cyber twist, some of the customers responded to a police posting on Craigslist, a widely used Web site that lists ads and messages by locale.
The men who thought they were responding to the ad of a woman actually were making offers to Pfc. Mike Bazzell of the Alton Police Department, specifying the sex act, price and established time, date and place to meet, he said. Police set up an apartment off East Broadway to use for each planned “rendezvous.”
“We put our ad on there with no pictures, no prices or numbers; we didn’t list anything we would do,” Bazzell said. “We said ‘she’ was new to the site, that she was a white female. It was just posted, and immediately men were e-mailing, asking what she looked like and what sex acts she would perform. They had to make the offer to us first; we never offered anything.”
Bazzell had placed the Web posting under the “erotic” subcategory under “services.” It is replete with pictures of women in lewd poses and thinly veiled offers of dates of specified time length for number of “roses” or “kisses,” which really mean dollars.
Once the men made an offer to pay for a sex act, “We said, ‘Come on over,’” Bazzell said.
While police reports usually show “johns” offer $20 or $25 for a sex act in Alton, the men looking to hook up through the Internet during this “sting” offered $100 or more for any of four acts.
“Internet guys pay a lot of money. Internet prices are a lot higher,” Bazzell said.
The first roundup in Alton was June 1, and the second was Thursday. Both efforts involved Alton police only. With street prostitution more active in the summer, Police Chief Chris Sullivan said authorities would continue the crackdown.
Of the 15 men charged with soliciting, four are from Alton, three from Brighton, two from Missouri and the rest from areas near Alton.
“There is no question these guys are coming from other cities,” Bazzell said. “They come from other areas because they feel a sense of safety out of their environment.”
He said their first response to their arrest is embarrassment.
“They immediately ask what they can do to get out of this,” he said.
All of those charged will get their mug shots and arrest information posted on the Alton Police Department Web site (www.altonpolice.com).
The arrests had odd twists.
In one instance, police arrested a man who offered money for sex to a female undercover police officer on the street. At first, they believed he was an Internet “customer” coming to his prearranged date. However, the Internet guy called Bazzell to tell him that he had just seen the other man being arrested near the date site and said they should meet at a nearby fast-food restaurant.
The police presence did not deter him, and he was arrested.
The one woman charged with prostitution had her 6- or 7-year-old nephew with her, ostensibly to discourage a customer from harming her, Sullivan said. She walked to the apartment set up by police, bringing body butter and the child.
“She felt a sense of safety having the child with her,” Bazzell said.
She had advertised on Craigslist offering to provide a genital massage for $100, he said.
Most of the men charged with soliciting for a prostitute, a misdemeanor, were driving around the Fifth and Ridge streets area looking for sex, although some were arrested elsewhere.
Three people were charged with obstructing justice, and one was cited with pedestrian in the roadway. They all warned motorists that police were operating in the area.
Bazzell said the arrests and accompanying publicity probably wouldn’t stifle the Alton police’s anti-prostitution efforts on the Internet.
“These guys want to commit these acts, regardless,” he said. “They always have a fear of police and still go through with it. There is no secret that police are monitoring these Web sites, but it’s not deterring them.”
Sullivan said police realize they can’t eliminate prostitution, but they can at least try to curb the activity, because it affects families when the men spend money on the women or bring diseases home. It also usually is tied to other criminal activities — such as drugs and thefts or robberies.
“The reason this is important is that this is an illegal activity, and it also is dangerous,” he said. “It increases traffic; they may or may not be drinking alcohol.”
For neighbors, a woman coming home from work at night or teenage girls standing in their yard have to put up with men “coming by and making lewd offers or hooting at them, which diminishes the quality of their lives,” Sullivan said.
Some residents are working hard with police and the Weed and Seed strategy to fight crime and improve the condition of the areas, including Hellrung Park. Prostitution only hurts their efforts, the chief said.
“This activity needs to cease or go anywhere else,” Sullivan said.
To also keep down street crime, and to acquaint themselves with neighbors, police have resumed foot patrols in areas of high crime and Downtown, where crowds of people eat and drink. Police also reopened the substation at Sixth and Ridge for residents to report problems and hold meetings.
Police also will resume their practice of sending out postcards to motorists who they, or neighbors, notice circling the blocks in three inner-city areas and stopping to talk to women or harassing them.
The postcards, visible for all to read — particularly wives, girlfriends or children who may ask questions after getting the mail — say that police are concerned about the motorist’s safety because “there are high levels of crime present in these areas, often in the form of prostitution and drug dealing.”
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