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Are the suburbs seeing more prostitution?

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By Kristin McAllister, Staff Writer Updated 12:07 PM Friday, September 11, 2009

The world’s oldest profession is starting to find a new home in suburbia, thanks to popular classified advertising Web sites, most notably, Craigslist, law officials say.

“The Internet and sites like Craigslist certainly are changing things,” said Capt. Chris Anderson of the Troy Police Department, where in early August, police arrested a couple for running a home-based prostitution business advertised on Craigslist.

“The cases we see usually, almost exclusively, are to support a drug habit,” he said.

Anderson said the increase in Internet use for prostitution has prompted the department to change operations to now include continuous monitoring of online activity in Troy.

Other communities are seeing cases of prostitution from women posting to Craigslist, backpage and social networking sites, including Kettering, where Montgomery County Organized Crime Unit officers in March arrested two women who posted on Craigslist erotic services, and in Miamisburg, where Dayton police detectives in May arrested a woman at the Red Roof Inn after contacting and meeting her following her posting to the site.

Both communities, however, are not reporting a rise in the number of prostitution arrests.

Warren County has also seen at least cases with sheriff’s detectives there in April nabbing eight women from four states in a sting in which detectives used the women’s posting to Craigslist to meet up in a motel in Deerfield Twp.

And though Craigslist has changed its Web site from listing erotic services to now listing adult services and having staff monitoring of all sex-related advertisements prior to posting, things are slipping through the system, said Sgt. Gary Lowe of the Dayton Vice Crimes Unit.

“It typically has been an urban problem, but it’s upgrading from street walking to advertising on the computer and using cell phones, because it’s safer,” he said. “They control the environment a lot better. They can have regular customers and pass along leads to other people.”

He said the safety issue, alone, is a huge contributing factor.

Prostitutes who pick up johns on the street don’t know with whom they’re getting into the car or in what situation they’ll land, he said, whereas, computer hook-ups offer greater control.

And because postings to Craigslist, for example, can be removed as fast as they’re posted, he said tracking them gets trickier, thus prompting more communities devoting detectives to continuous monitoring of such sites.

Anderson, with the Troy Police Department, said Dayton’s aggressive strike against prostitution in the city is bound to have an impact on surrounding communities.

“As it is with anything else, the more that Dayton cracks down on stuff, it’s destined to migrate to us in a few years,” he said.

The one constant among area communities seeing prostitution cases is that most of the women are prostituting themselves to support their drug habit.

“Some, if they’re really messed up, will charge five bucks and up,” Lowe said, adding that in the majority of cases, prostitutes charge $20.

While most police departments don’t see many cases in which a prostitute has a pimp, Lowe said his unit does see women working to support her and a boyfriend’s drug habit.

“It’s not like in the 70s, where you see a Huggy Bear out there, like on Starsky and Hutch,” he said. “Most are on their own.”

He said prostitutes usually range in age from 20s to 50s, while johns typically are between 20s and 70s.

And though the city is cracking down hard on prostitution, Lowe said a significant part of the program is in getting women out of the vicious cycle and into programs to help them get back on track in life.

“I just had a case with a woman who’s maintained contact with me after we got her into a program, and she’s doing a lot better,” he said. “When that happens, that’s really good. That’s getting through to someone.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9338 or kmcallister@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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