Backpage (How to) Beat Prostitution Police Stings

Tewksbury, Ma. at the public library, an undercover detective arrested a homeless man who had allegedly placed an ad on Craigslist offering to perform sexual acts for a fee.


Prostitution stings and reverse stings are occurring across the country, here’s how to beat them and why their happening…


WHY ALL THE STINGS The Backpage crackdown coincides with Washington State attorney general Rob McKenna is this year’s president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). McKenna’s presidential initiative is combatting human trafficking by arresting “escorts” prostitutes and their clients and by raising public awareness of the issue and reducing demand. To learn more about this initiative see the NAAG website Pillars of Hope: Attorneys General United Against Human Trafficking.


In 2010 nearly two dozen attorneys general asked that the adult services site be taken down. Here is an excerpt from McKenna’s Washington State AG website; “Traffickers who exploit runaways and other disadvantaged k**s shouldn’t be provided with a powerful online clearinghouse.


The only way for Backpage.com to completely stop c***d sex trafficking on its site is to take down adult services advertisements altogether and take aggressive steps to be sure such ads don’t surface elsewhere on the site.”


Village Voice board member Don Moon acknowledged prostitution ads appear on the Web site. And in a June 29, [2011] article published nationally by the Village Voice, the corporation criticized those attempting to stop trafficking as “prohibitionists bent on ending the world’s oldest profession.” Backpage.com, is owned by Village Voice Media, LLC.


Moon, a former prosecutor now on the Village Voice Media board, has worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited c***dren.
Backpage took over a large share of the human trafficking that Craigslist became famous for prior to the AG’s crackdown on that site.


Backpage.com has developed a strong cooperative relationship with state and federal law enforcers around the country assisting with sting operations, promptly responding to subpoenas, and otherwise aiding in the prosecution of those who use their site.”


WHAT ARE REVERSE STINGS Such stings are periodic and usually result in 15 to 30 would-be johns under arrest. Teams of about three to four officers target areas where police have fielded complaints about street prostitution.


“We get complaints from people reporting prostitutes and johns having sex in cars, leaving condoms on the street,” Lt. Derrick Wood, commander of Philadelphia’s Vice Unit, told General Strike to end Corruption (GS). “We target areas based on what we see and what the people tell us.”


Undercover officers also use the website Backpage.com to post and view advertisements for escort services.


A man agrees to pay ($150) to have sex with a woman he thinks is a prostitute. After the money changes hands, officers enter the room and arrest him.


“We have a strict set of guidelines to go by in order to make an arrest,” according to Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry. “There has to be an offering of money or something of value for a sex act.”


“We use surveillance for the protection of the undercover deputy — and evidence is gathered in the recordings of the conversations and the payment of money for a specific sex act,” sheriff Berry told GS.

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Although many undercover officers and informants come equipped with transmitting or recording devices, this type of electronic equipment is miniaturized. A police agent who’s “wearing a wire” is unlikely to be uncovered by a mere pat down. The equipment can easily be hidden in hard articles of clothing, such as belt buckles, boots, etc.
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It is possible to detect, track and locate police officers (hidden or otherwise) by using their own radios and mobile data terminals (MDT) as locater beacons. As an example, say the input frequencies to a particular Motorola 800 MHz trunked radio system used by your local corrupt police department are 811.2125, 811.7375, 812.2125, 813.2125, 814.2125 and 815.2125 MHz, with the MDT input frequency at 815.7375 MHz (all data is taken from public FCC records). Police vehicles equipped with Mobile Data Terminals are always broadcasting on the MDT repeater input frequency.

This is because they need to send acknowledgements (ACKs) when they receive data. By monitoring the MDT repeater input frequency, you can be alerted to the presence of a hidden or approaching police vehicle. The closer they are, the stronger the signal will be.

If you ever hear encrypted voice transmissions (a static burst followed by a beep) on the repeater input frequencies – RUN! Tools

Electronic Warfare Online Interactive Calculators
VHF/UHF Free Space Loss / Approximate Received Power Level Calculator (Perl)

Law enforcement agents can, as part of their job, lie and engage in criminal activity. It seems unreal that the police don’t have to live up to the same standards that they’re enforcing. However, a great deal of police investigation operates on the basis that the end justifies the means—a flawed rationale, particularly in the context of maintaining a just legal system. Pleading guilty to patronizing a prostitute you face up to a $600 fine, up to 36 months of probation, or jail time, and must enroll in an AIDS Education Program.


Prostitution (or solicitation) is a misdemeanor.For a first offense, they usually cite and release but potential penalties include up to six (6) months in county jail, a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both.


HOW REVERSE STINGS WORK Officers post advertisements on Backpage.com. The john calls the number listed in the ad and sets up an appointment at a local hotel.


Once the john enters the room, confirms they are looking for a “sexual transaction,” and pays the officer who is posing as the prostitute, the john is arrested. Undercover pigs also pose as prostitutes on the street as well.


HOW TO AVOID GETTING CAUGHT UP IN A STING DOs and DONT’s ONLINE

1. Never talk about trading money for sex over the phone or in person. Never talk about anything explicit in exchange for money. Its for time/company or massage only, that’s all that should be said.


2. Use client verification service like Room Service 2000, Preferred411, or Datecheck, http://www.worldsexguide.org is your friend.


3. Get to know your provider/client- talk over a cup of coffee, undercover pigs will not do this, they don’t have the time.


4. Never walk into a room that you do not know who is the tenant or owner. You must witness the room registration. If you can’t do this, check all of the rooms before any transaction takes place, if it is a sting one of the rooms will be full of pigs.


5. Do a search of the phone number being used. If the Google search comes back with no previous ads, then it’s a good chance that the girl is fake.


6. If the search does come back with results showing other ads, make sure the pictures of the girl and her name match up. If you only find results for one city, but you’ve never seen the girl posting before, she may be the police.


7. That’s when you need to check to see if the pictures are real, or stolen from somewhere else. Use tineye on the pics to see if they show up anywhere else.


8. That’s if you can’t find any reviews. If you can find reviews for the girl, you are more than likely good to go.


Been busted by Vice, we want to hear/publish your story. Send to [email protected]


It is not just Backpage it is CraigsList, myRedBook, Cityvibe & Eros. Ads, websites, reviews help them locate, contact and build their cases to convict us.


DOs and DONT’s STREET PROSTITUTES


1. Stop your car somewhere close to the girl, wait for her to come to you and get in. DO NOT negotiate with her until she is in the car and you are driving away. ”Decoys” would like you to solicit sex for money while they are standing safely outside your car on the sidewalk don’t make it that easy for them. If the girl says anything to you before she gets in your car, just say “Do you want a ride?” (ie, pretend you think she is just a hitchhiker looking for a ride). NEVER solicit sex from a girl standing outside of your car: if she wants to talk about sex before she gets in your car, just drive away(even if she is not a cop, it is too risky to find out).



2. After she is in your car, drive away, but if she TELLS YOU where to go, be very suspicious (there may be cops, or worse things waiting there for you). Make small talk until you get several blocks away, like ask her her name, how old she is, if she is from town. You can ask her to “prove” that she is not a cop by lifting her shirt and letting you squeeze a tit, some girls will ask you to unzip and pull it out : the hope is that if the girl is a cop, anything she says or does after she lets you feel her tits is entrapment, and would probably be thrown out of court.


3. Many girls will ask you if you are a cop, or you can ask her. The answer means nothing, because cops can legally lie to you. Cops can and do say they are not cops. There’s no point in asking.


4. Never pick up a new girl. You need to see a girl on the street several times and at different hours of the day and night. And also see if they get in cars and leave with a john and how soon they come back.


5. In some areas, cops observe the local street scene from some distance out of an unmarked car; if you pick someone up, they follow you to the motel or parking lot and bust you there. Always make absolutely sure that nobody’s following you.


6. Vice officers investigating prostitution are allowed to get naked and receive a “massage.”


7. We are all responsible for our own safety.


8. Been busted by Vice, we want to hear/publish your story. Send to [email protected]


A few years ago, there was a ton of political grandstanding against Craigslist, because there was some prostitution on the site. As we noted at the time, it was pretty misguided.

Craigslist cooperated with law enforcement and many law enforcement officials realized that Craigslist was an excellent tool to help them find and arrest law breakers. Going after Craigslist instead of the actual law breakers would mean that the activity would just move somewhere else. Indeed, Craigslist finally caved to tons of public pressure and blocked any ad that might be related to prostitution, and it did nothing to stop prostitution or human trafficking. It just moved elsewhere.

The same crowd that wrongfully targeted Craigslist then shifted all of their attention to Backpage.com. Even though the law has made it clear that Backpage, as a third party service provider is not liable, the grandstanding continues against Backpage. The whole thing has gotten to be so much, that Backpage’s owners, Village Voice Media, have sold off the newspapers to separate them out from the site, and to avoid having the two properties connected.


CRUEL and UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS I received an e-mail from someone named “Patricia”, who asked me to publish her story. Here it is, unedited:


I hope this might help some to get an idea of what they might get themselves into, or make them realize the importance of being extremely careful about screening your clients and knowing the surroundings where you will provide services, so as to not make your case worse.

Recently, I was arrested in an escort prostitution sting. I have been doing research on-line to see if I can help my case and I found this website. I decided to share my story so if there are females working as an escort or contemplating doing it, they may know what they are up against.

I am 20 year old college student in the Upstate, NY. I been escorting for about a year. I thought I knew the ropes, the likelihood of getting busted was very low, I knew what to do and, if I got busted, it was unlikely to cause me problems. Was I ever wrong!

I have put ads on the Backpage website for escorting. I got an email and accepted a client and I was to meet him at a major hotel. I drove to the hotel and went to the room. I walked in, looked around and everything seemed in order. We started a little small talk and neither of us was going to get to the point right away. I decided to break the ice by saying “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours” as I have done in the past. The man dropped his pants and he had an erection and I raised my skirt and dropped my panties. I touch his penis and he touch my vagina. This has been my modus operandi when I go out escorting. He told me he wanted to have intercourse with me. I told him it would be $300 and I supply the condom. I always use the best. He gave me the money and I gave him the condom. Both of us got undressed. He asked me to lay on the bed and start by masturbating because he liked to watch that. So, I laid on the bed and started to masturbate. This went on for several minutes and, at the time, I was enjoying entertaining him. Then all of a sudden, three men from the adjoining room came in and said, “your under arrested for prostitution.” I was immediately handcuffed and I was told to stand there. The police searched my clothes and purse while one of the cops took pictures of me nude while I was handcuffed. After they were finished, they uncuffed me, allowed me to dress, recuffed me and led me out of the hotel into a police car and took me to the police station.

At the police station, I was booked and then they informed me of the charges. They charged me with two felonies. Felony prostitution because they set the sting up within a mile of a school and use of a computer during commission of a crime. They told me they were going to seize my car and computer because they were used in the commission of a crime. I chose not to answer any question and they release me on bail. My roommate bailed me out. The worse was yet to come.

The next day the story was in the local papers, on the local television news and on their websites with all the details of my arrest and my picture. I was publically humilated!

I hired an attorney for $2000 and, if it went to trial, it would be another $5000. He felt he could get the charges reduced by the District Attorney to a misdemenor since I had no police record. He said, if I pled guilty to the misdemenor, I would probably get a $500 fine,get 5 days in jail and would get my record expunge in a year if I stayed out of trouble. My attorney and I met with the District Attorney’s office and we were shocked by what happened next.. They said they would drop the use of a computer during commission of a crime charge, which carried up to 5 years in prison, if I pled guilty to the felony prostitution and they would recommend a 3 to 6 month sentance in the county jail. My attorney argued with them about the harshness of their position considering I had no priors. The District Attorney’s office said that they were going to make an example out of me and the 2 other girls they arrested that day because the hotels were complaining about prostitution. If I chose not to accept the deal, they would prosecute me for both felonies and if convicted, I could get 7 years in state prison for both charges. What happen next both shocked my attorney and myself. They had a hidden video camera in the room and told us they would show the video of me undressing and masturbating along with the pictures taken by the police at trial. They told me that any evidence presented at trail is a public record and after the trial anyone could get a copy of the video and pictures..

My attorney says at preliminary hearing, he will ask the judge to reduce the charges to a misdemenor, but it is unlikely that he will successful and that I will have to decide to take the offer or risk jury trial. He told me with evidence they have, it was highly likely I would be convicted. This is what I am up against. So be warned!