While the goal is to go undetected by police, the vice unit has also embraced the technology, leading to stings like one this month that netted two $100- to $200-an- hour prostitutes and two johns — a doctor and a minister. It was the department’s largest sting of out-call prostitutes.
Two years ago, the Vice Unit began arranging one to two Internet stings a month after noting an increase in the number of online ads offering questionable services. “We’ve made 50 to 75 arrests a year from the Internet,” Lowe said.
“These investigations are more time-consuming. On the street, you can see them. On the Internet, it might take two or three days before they make a date,” Lowe said.
The $10 to $30 working girls on the corners and alleys along East Third Street and the North Main Street corridors aren’t gone. After five years of declines, prostitution-related arrests jumped in 2009 and are on track this year to near last year’s total.
“Street prostitution is still our priority,” Lowe said. “When it’s cold and nobody’s out there, we go to (the computer).”
Her name was Jess, a 29-year-old who offered “full-service stress reduction” on backpage.com.
His name was Douglas, and he was looking online for a “girlfriend experience.”
Both ended up at a major chain hotel near Interstate 75 earlier this month, but not with each other.
They were undercover police officers working an Internet prostitution sting that led to the arrest of a doctor from Cincinnati, a pastor from Lima, a 21-year-old dancer and a 23-year-old mother of two — brought to the hotel by the father of one of her children.
The men and women arrested this month were bargaining in the $100- to $250-an-hour range for sexual favors in a warm, high-end hotel room. On the stroll on Third or Main streets, the rate runs $10 to $40 for a few minutes in a cold alley or car.
During the past two years, the Internet prostitutes have accounted for about 30 percent of prostitution arrests, said Sgt. Gary Lowe, head of Dayton’s Vice Unit.
The department’s sting operations are arranged through the cooperation of area hotels. “It’s a problem for them, and they’re happy to help,” Lowe said.
Some may question whether the weekend operation is a good use of police resources in these tight economic times, arguing prostitution is a victimless crime.
Street cops and those who counsel the jailed women think otherwise.
“The common denominator among these women is sexual abuse,” said Cheryl Oliver, executive director of Oasis House. The privately funded ministry sees as many as 250 women a week — most repeat customers — in the Montgomery County Regional Jail and the “gentlemen’s clubs” along North Dixie in Harrison Twp.
Though the rates and locales may differ, the women share a common history.
“Ninety-five percent of the women we see have been sexually abused, some at a very early age,” Oliver said.
“There is a higher incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar and other mental health issues among these women. They are touch-deprived for a genuine loving touch that doesn’t demand something from them,” she said.
Lowe sees it as a drug problem.
“Prostitution is far from victimless. Ask the mom or dad of the women. Ask the wife or husband of the johns. Most are trying to get money for drugs. They get their money from sex for their drugs,” he said.
And it hurts the fabric of the community, harming the businesses along East Third and North Main corridors, and bringing even more drugs into those neighborhoods, the sergeant said.
Oliver has had only limited contact with the out-call prostitutes.
But while such prostitutes may charge more, both Oliver and Lowe agreed many of the women end up on the street.
“You can tell those new to the street. They’re better looking. You see them a month, a month-and-a-half later, it’s like they aged five or 10 years,” Lowe said.
Oasis House hopes to help such women through its jail outreach, mentoring and post-release support.
“We’ll start to notice we’re not seeing someone on the street for several months. You hope they got off drugs. Then a year or two later, you’ll see them back. You ask and they tell you they fell off the wagon or fell into hard times,” Lowe said.
One of the challenges facing Oasis House, according to Lowe, is lack of a safe living facility for the women who want to get off the street. “If you’re going to do that, you have to get rid of your old friends, the old places you used to hang out.”
“That is our goal,” Oliver said.
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