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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > September > 19 > Entry
Editorial: As sex crimes change, so must area police
Prostitution has changed in the Internet age. Law enforcement, too, has to change to combat it.
But the efforts of local police departments to catch Internet sex criminals — ranging from prostitutes and johns to child sex offenders — begs for more regional cooperation. Too many police departments are addressing the problem on their own, making the region’s approach a patchwork, haphazard effort.
That’s not to say those police departments are doing a bad job. Quite the contrary. Online sting operations are catching bad guys and bad girls and providing disincentives for sex industry operators to set up shop in the Dayton area.
But many of the criminals they catch are not from here. Often they are actually from out of town, or even out of state, enticed by the idea of meeting up with a prostitute, a john or an underage girl who is really an undercover officer. A regional effort might be better able to bring together law enforcement officers who know how to target stings to the local sex trade.
Some of the sting operations have great track records of success. Xenia’s child protection unit gained a national reputation for its pioneering work combating sexual predators.
In the last couple of years, there has been an explosion of online prostitution, fed by solicitors and potential clients meeting up through online classified Web sites, especially the popular and free Craigslist, where you can buy and sell almost anything. The problem has become a national issue, with law enforcement groups pressuring Craigslist last year into changing its practices to make it tougher for the sex industry to use that forum.
This effort has had only a modest effect. Locally, police report that Craigslist has changed the sex trade, moving sexual deal-making from the street corner to the Internet, and moving prostitution rapidly to suburban hotels and homes.
Naturally, police departments have reacted as the sex trade moved to their communities. In a Sept. 11 story, officers discussed sting operations in suburban communities like Troy, Kettering, Miamisburg and Warren County’s Deerfield Twp. In most cases, these were individual operations run by local police or task forces.
Suppose all these efforts to combat sex crimes — both involving adults and children — were combined across several counties. One team of officers could patrol the Web, focusing on hot spots around the Dayton area. The shared effort could reduce costs, while expanding law enforcement’s net into even more communities. It’s also likely such an effort would be easier to fund by spreading the cost and burden over many departments, not just the few that can put resources toward it.
Perhaps regional task forces could be set up across the state to deal with these crimes. Internet-based crimes have evolved quickly. Police have done their best to respond to what they see as new threats. That’s the right instinct. What’s needed now is a more coherent, planned response.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
Comments
By Tim
September 19, 2009 9:07 AM | Link to this
What’s all the fuss about? In America’s youth worshipping culture, a 60 year old amputee without a wife makes a deal with some poor woman who is in need of money, to have a little fun. Everyone has a conniption. Would you rather the old guy leer at your girls in the mall, or just go see a lewd woman somewhere? Gays are storming your school curriculum, tv is a sinkhole of filth, but God forbid a lonely old man has a little fun. You pilgrims are so hung up. What did your daughter do for free last night? Hmmm?By Tim
September 19, 2009 9:16 AM | Link to this
Was it George Carlin who said, “Sex is legal, buying or selling things is legal, but selling sex is a crime…” Under-age girls are rightly protected by law, (at least from dirty old men) but what’s up with this attitude about call-girls? As long as they are 21, who cares what they sell?By Pat
September 19, 2009 1:25 PM | Link to this
I remember the argument being that hookers on the corner devalued an area and brought in other crimes such as drug dealing so yes it is time for a change they are off the corner and on the internet helping area hotels and im sure they spend profits in Dayton also so I ask who is the victim? why are we spending any resources on this?By watchman
September 19, 2009 1:54 PM | Link to this
maybe this is more an editorial against craigslist than it is a concern about morality issues. craigslist costs the newspaper business hundreds of thousands of dollars every day.By steve
September 19, 2009 2:25 PM | Link to this
Lets see here…tax revenues are down because of the economy…cops are getting laid off, and you want to go after victimless criminals. genius. I agree there needs to be a state level organization catching the child molesters. use the Xenia model. However it doesn’t take a very smart person to be able to distinguish the difference between a hooker and a child predetor. You lumping them together as “sex criminals” is very telling. internet prostitution is a win/win. I don’t have to see them when I drive down Main St, and they don’t have to stand there in a war zone. If I don’t see it happen and its between two adults, how is that any of my business or yours? record numbers of unemployed people are going to net us an increased crime rate. I hope I don’t get mugged when the cops are too busy peeking into bedroom windows.By SexOffenderLawsAreFlawed
September 19, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this
Over the next several years you will see an explosion in sex offender registry because those who pass the laws want to see everyone on it! Do you know you can be registered as a sex offender if you pee behind a tree? Or by downloading your grandchilds baby pics? Look at all the boys under the age of 21 on the registry now. Lawmakers have made it a sure-bet that you don’t even have to parent your teenage daughters - the boy will go to jail for them sleeping around under the age of 18.By Grace
September 19, 2009 9:26 PM | Link to this
Let’s hope law enforcement never bands together for something like this. The Adam Walsh Act was one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation ever enacted. States who were actually concerned about their children, (not potential Federal tax dollars), voted the AWA down after careful review. Ohio, on the other hand, drained valuable resources from law enforcement, got no federal money, and ended up actually endangering its own children by enacting AWA. No someone suggests more problems?By Quentin
September 20, 2009 3:42 PM | Link to this
We are sending men left and right to prison and putting them on list for things such as peeing in a dark ally, women who make false accusations of rape for revenge or to cover up for cheating, boys who are being molested are forced to pay child support to their attackers and people want to make even more laws to hammer us? How about we enforce the laws we already HAVE, stop giving women who lie a pass, stop letting female predators walk and stop the petty crap like peeing in an ally as a major crime first.