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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Seattle Police target advertised escort service customers
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
11/16/2006 9:00:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jeff Kappel (206) 684-5520
Police Media Relations (206) 684-5520
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Seattle Police target advertised escort service customers
SEATTLE – The Seattle Police Department’s Vice Unit has just concluded an operation targeting those seeking to procure sex by responding to adds seen on Craig’s List and in The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly.
The Vice Unit created fictional advertisements, placing them in the erotic section of Craig’s List and in the classified sections of The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly. Undercover female police officers posed as decoys. Those making “appointments” with our decoys were directed to a furnished apartment in downtown Seattle. Upon agreeing to participate in a ‘money-for-sex’ transaction, the subjects were arrested.
In a total of 14 days the Vice Unit arrested 96 men for Patronizing a Prostitute and 14 women for Prostitution (during slow periods, detectives called escorts advertising on Craig’s list). One prostitute was a juvenile who claimed that she had been forced into prostitution. Detectives are aggressively pursuing that matter.
Of the 110 total arrests, 5 were booked into King County Jail. Those booked included a sex offender, a man carrying a concealed handgun and three men who brought drugs to the apartment. Of the 96 men arrested, 71 came to us via our Craig’ s List ad (74%), 17 from our Seattle Weekly ad (18%) and 8 from our Stranger ad (8%). All 14 women arrested had placed ads on Craig’s List.
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