Re: LAPD Undercover: Faux hooker bait for unwary johns
- From: "gerry" <gerrytwo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 9 Aug 2006 22:09:02 -0700
Since the city attorney initiated the vehicle seizure program in 2003,
more than 500 cars have been impounded. The city has made $325,000 in
buybacks, though the City Attorney's Office emphasizes that the program
is meant to deter solicitation, not earn money.
Not earn money? The car impound release fees are on top of hefty fines
the hooked johns have to pay in court. Putting a policewoman's life in
danger to nab some morons who seem to have never heard about AIDs or
hepatitis. Why not put the crack and meth addicted whores into drug
treatment? That costs money, money that can be better spent on
unmarked SUVs for the police commissioner's top brass.
http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_4142208
Faux hooker bait for unwary johns
BY SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer
Heather, an undercover Los Angeles police officer, portrays a
prostitute strolling on Sepulveda Boulevard to bait johns. (John
Lazar/Staff Photographer)
The men use their eyes to tell the blond and pretty Heather what they
want.
There is no polite conversation, no "Pretty Woman" banter in the
exchange. Seeking sex on the boulevard is seldom about service with a
smile.
"You just know," Heather says of the would-be johns who pull over to
make a deal. "You look. You see. You smell it."
The tough, sexually charged language of prostitution comes easy to her.
Years of working the streets of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood
have taught her to speak with her eyes to strangers looking for instant
gratification, to always keep in motion as she walks between lampposts
on busy thoroughfares.
But unlike the teens and other women who walk the streets, who sell
their bodies for drug money or to avoid a pimp's beat-down, Heather
hooks on the city's dime.
She's a 38-year-old police officer, one of about 20 women within the
ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley divisions who has
worked the "trick task force" for years.
A mother of two young daughters, she's worked on more than 50 such
stings, she said. She can't even count the number of men she caught
trying to solicit her.
She does it, she says, to help protect hard-working families who are
just trying to make ends meet, who instead are subjected to this seedy
environment.
"She's smart, she thinks on her feet, and she's at least two steps
ahead of the johns," said Detective Rick McElroy, who has worked vice
for more than 20 years.
On a recent sting on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, Heather - who goes by
her street name to protect her identity - took part in an operation in
which 11 men were arrested.
The trick task force is a choice assignment for some officers in the
vice unit, she says. Those who work it say it's exciting. The
take-downs happen fast. Some women officers like the brief attention
from men.
But the work can be dangerous.
Undercover officers known as operatives stay tight-lipped about a
sting's details. Some johns carry weapons. Some are so anxious, so
angry, they're ready to throw punches if they don't get what they want.
"Two task forces ago, one guy that stopped for me happened to have a
handgun in his waistband," Heather says. "He had three loaded guns in
his car, two swords and dope, and he was a fugitive from Arizona wanted
for rape. Imagine what could have happened."
But there isn't a particular type of man - a certain race or religion
or age - who wants a prostitute, Heather says. She's seen men pull up
with a child safety seat strapped into the back seat of their car.
She's heard of guys who drop their wives off at the nearest Wal-Mart,
hoping for a quick romp before having to pick them up and head home.
"There are all kinds of stories," she says of the men she's met, even
of the real prostitutes she has come to know. "There are funny stories,
sad stories, scary stories."
And when they're caught, there are all kinds of excuses, too.
"They say, `I just wanted to talk,' or `I wasn't going to do anything,'
or `I didn't mean it."'
Female police officers have been used as undercover prostitutes "ever
since women have been allowed on the force," said Penny Harrington, a
founder of the National Association of Women in Law Enforcement.
Harrington herself worked vice after she became a cop in 1964, when
female officers were limited to "women's divisions," like the kind that
handled juvenile cases. In 1985, she became the chief of the Portland
(Ore.) Police Department.
"They tucked me into it once in a while," she said of the trick task
forces. "A lot of women officers don't like to do that job.
"It is dangerous because prostitution is often associated with heavy
drug areas, with men who like to abuse women."
Commonly fueled by the need for drug money, prostitution can be part of
a cycle that includes gang activity.
"I watch traffic a lot," Heather says of her tactic to keep safe. "I've
been very fortunate. Anything can happen. I don't know anyone who isn't
frightened, but I'm always focused."
"We've never lost an undercover prostitute," McElroy said. "That's a
testament to the way we conduct the operations."
In the Valley, the prostitution scene is dominated by drug-addicted
women - who Heather bluntly calls "crack whores" - who walk Sepulveda
Boulevard. These women don't bother to dress up. They don't sell
illusions like the hookers in Hollywood.
When she works the Valley, Heather gets by in jeans and a sweat shirt.
"Even a blind squirrel can get a nut," Heather says, because men drive
specifically down Sepulveda to pay for sex.
While some debate whether prostitution is a victimless crime, Heather
and residents in high-impact areas argue it's the residents who are
often affected. Used syringes and condoms litter side streets and curbs
where children play. Women of all ages are solicited as they make their
way down some Valley streets or wait for buses.
"If you want to go take your dog for a walk, by the time you walk from
Sepulveda to Valerio, you might get five hits, or guys stopping to ask,
`How much?"' said Joseph Cordaro, president of the Van Nuys
Neighborhood Council.
"When you have one type of illicit activity, you've got the drug use
and you've got contraband being left behind. It's all part of that same
element."
Street prostitution arrests remain flat in the Valley, but are below
1990s levels. There were 433 prostitution-related arrests citywide
through May, about the same level as last year.
But it does recur in cycles, usually during the summer, when "circuit
girls" make their way to Los Angeles from Fresno, Las Vegas or Hawaii,
police said.
Sepulveda remains one of L.A.'s top three destinations, along with
Hollywood Boulevard and Figueroa Street, McElroy said.
"It's an institution of prostitution," he said of Sepulveda. "We can't
eliminate it, but we can control it. The best we can do is try to
improve the quality of life."
The LAPD plans to operate stings once a month in the Valley through
October, cracking down on johns by taking away their cars, then making
them buy them back.
Since the city attorney initiated the vehicle seizure program in 2003,
more than 500 cars have been impounded. The city has made $325,000 in
buybacks, though the City Attorney's Office emphasizes that the program
is meant to deter solicitation, not earn money.
Even with the auto-seizure program, even as solicitations occur on the
Internet or over cell phones, Heather says there are still men who
would rather pick up women on the street.
Only twice has she worked a task force when she was unsuccessful. Some
officers joke about those moments, of the times when a john offers only
$15, Heather says.
"Sometimes you feel a little self-conscious walking back and forth,"
she says. "It's a tad bit hard on the ego."
And her husband won't watch her work on a task force, even though she's
invited him.
"He says, `No, I don't want to know'," she says.
Heather became a police officer 11 years ago. She grew up in the Valley
and had worked as a waitress for eight years. When she attended a
seminar and listened to a female LAPD officer talk about the job, she
just about signed up on the spot.
She liked the idea of working patrol, of wearing the badge and the
uniform, she says. But an opportunity to work the gang detail lured her
into vice work.
She first worked the streets of Hollywood, learning lessons along the
way that have since left her as hardened as the pavement she walks.
"When I first started it, I dealt with a lot of young girls," Heather
said. "I would try to talk to them, to help them. But it became really
clear that they were there because they wanted the money."
She recalls seeing a young prostitute walk the boulevard holding the
hand of her 5-year-old son. Strung out on drugs and angry, the woman
urinated on the street, then berated the boy for watching.
"She was saying horrible things to him," she says. "I was overcome with
sadness."
Many of the real prostitutes she knows were sexually abused as
children, and she understands that not all of them do what they do by
choice.
But there is a level of frustration that comes with her job - a public
that doesn't always understand why resources are spent on fighting
prostitution, the people on the street she comes in contact with.
"You can't help but be jaded," she says. "It's a survival mechanism. I
believe a lot of people that we come in contact with are liars, people
who live lies. It's left me disappointed in society."
.
- References:
- LAPD Undercover: Faux hooker bait for unwary johns
- From: millhaven
- LAPD Undercover: Faux hooker bait for unwary johns
- Prev by Date: Mother Kills Son in DUI Crash
- Next by Date: Only in Vegas:Disorder in the Court
- Previous by thread: Re: LAPD Undercover: Faux hooker bait for unwary johns
- Next by thread: Multiple link site on and about Dale Hausner (one of the accused Phoenix Serial Snipers).
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
