Contact : Corp. Meidl
Date : 10/21/2008
Incident #:
Prostitution Targeted in East Spokane

On 10/21/2008, several officers joined forces and made numerous arrests to try and curb the prostitution occurring in the City of Spokane. After several businesses complained about prostitution in the East Central area, Neighborhood Resource Officer Strassenberg came up with a plan.

For about five hours today, officers were out posing as prostitutes and as patrons of prostitutes. Officers Strassenberg, T.Douglas, Rosenthal, Draper, Downing, Redmon, P.Taylor, and Sgt. Singley conducted the special enforcement which resulted in the following charges:

* Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution-4 arrests
* Patronizing a Prostitute-6 arrests
* Felony Drug Offense-1 arrest
* Misdemeanor Drug Offense-3 arrests
* Drug Paraphernalia-3 arrests
* Warrants-4 arrests

The arrests today verified that prostitution is a crime that leads to a larger problem of drug use. It is commonly known that drug use leads to the majority of property crimes in our city, which has been on the rise.

I cannot help but wonder if there is also a direct link between drugs and prostitution in Spokane and sales of stolen property and identity theft. There is a possibly-related story Where pot, porn and pizza meet that defies the imagination.

Dave

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