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New wrinkle on oldest profession


Craigslist facts
Craigslist.org was founded in 1995 by computer programmer Craig Newmark as an events bulletin board for the San Francisco area and has grown into "a network of local community Web sites, where millions of people connect each month for everyday stuff — like jobs, housing, goods & services, romance, events, friendships and advice," according to the site.


By RICHARD LIEBSON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: February 1, 2005)


WHITE PLAINS — People use the Craigslist online bulletin board to find jobs, apartments, roommates, dogs and even true love. White Plains police say the list also offers sex for sale.

In the past month, police said, they arrested 20 high-priced New York City call girls and pimps after responding to postings on the popular Web site, www.craigslist.org.

Since late December, city detectives have been answering ads with such headings as "Teacher Seeking Pupils," "Wild Girl Next Door" and some even more explicit. Once contact is made, "services" are described, a price is negotiated and meetings at local hotels and motels arranged. In many cases, a woman shows up within an hour, sometimes with a driver.

Thus far, 12 women have been arrested on misdemeanor prostitution charges, and one woman and seven men have been charged with promoting prostitution, also a misdemeanor.

"It's the Internet. It's an open market where you can get literally anything," said Capt. Nick Kralik, commander of the Detective Division. "We received information that this bulletin board was being used for prostitution, so we decided to check it out.

"It was something different, something we hadn't done before. There are no Internet police, but we decided that if people were so bold that they were advertising prostitution openly on the Web, we were going to go after them."

Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer of Craigslist.org, said many of the types of postings the police have been responding to were put up by escort services, which he noted were not illegal.

"A perfectly legal ad can turn out to be a front for something that's illegal," he said. "If those ads are pointed out to us we would certainly pull them. This is not a new problem. You can find ads for these kinds of things in newspapers and even the yellow pages."

In an e-mail to The Journal News, Buckmaster added: "As noted in our terms of use, Craigslist expressly prohibits postings that constitute illegal activity."

Detective Sgt. Wade Hardy said many of the ads feature photographs of nude or partially nude women and use code words to describe what they offered.

"They ask for 'donations' or say that, when you contact them, they'll want '250 reasons' for meeting with you for a half-hour or an hour," he said. "They'll list a telephone number."

Frequently, Kralik said, when a detective called the number, the man or woman on the other end would ask for personal information to try to verify who was calling. More often than not, he said, the person would call the hotel or motel to make sure the caller was registered there, then call back to confirm the meeting. Local hotels and motels have cooperated during the investigation, Kralik said.

When the woman arrives, a police officer is waiting in the room and arrests her after she asks for money. "They take the money, knowing it's for sex, and that's when we arrest them," Hardy said.

If the woman was driven to the hotel by someone else, that person is arrested by other undercover officers staked out nearby.

"They don't act surprised or get really upset when they realize we're cops," Hardy said. "To them, it's just part of doing business."

An 18-year police veteran, Hardy said that while he's seen a few prostitution arrests in White Plains, "I've never seen so many in such a short period of time."

Kralik said he thought the sting had had an effect. Most of the women are released on $250 or more bail after being tested for sexually transmitted diseases at the Westchester County jail, in accordance with state health law. In a few cases, he said, detectives noticed new posts on the Web site a day or so after one of the prostitutes was released.

"LADIES BEWARE, WE JUST POSTED BAIL," read one such posting. "Cops are in the motels posing as (customers) in the motels. ... Don't fall for the scam, unless you'd like to spend the night (in jail) until you get bailed out."

Police Inspector Daniel Jackson called the sting "a great new tool."

"It shows that we're being innovative, creative and proactive in combating crime," he said. "Obviously, this effort has had an impact. The message is going out, to the prostitutes themselves, to stay away from White Plains."

Kralik said, "We're not Las Vegas here. We don't have a prostitution problem in White Plains, and we're trying to make sure it stays that way."


Send e-mail to Richard Liebson


   









   


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