National sting finds juvenile prostitutes

Clark County officials review their participation in operation
The girl taps on the door. A scruffy-looking older man greets her and lets her into the quiet white one-story house.

They don’t waste any time. He hands her the money and the two head for the bedroom.

Once there, though, he stalls. “I need to use the bathroom,” he tells her.

On cue, six officers in tactical gear swarm the bedroom, and the juvenile prostitute is caught. The “john” was actually an undercover officer.

This sting was just one of several made by Vancouver police officers and Clark County sheriff’s deputies Oct. 22 as part of a nationwide mission aimed at rescuing child prostitutes.

Spearheaded by the FBI, Operation Cross Country IV took place in 36 cities throughout the country Oct. 22 and the following weekend.

This was the first sting of its type in Vancouver, officials said.

The local operation netted the rescue of two underage prostitutes and the arrests of seven adult prostitutes and three alleged pimps, a signal that a problem once believed to be a Portland-only phenomenon or an underground Vancouver secret should now be treated as a salient issue, said Vancouver police Lt. John Chapman.

Chapman and police highlighted the operation’s results during a day-long training forum for local law enforcement officials Thursday at the Vancouver First Church of God in Hazel Dell. The event was sponsored by Shared Hope International, a Vancouver organization that targets global sex slavery.

A year ago, Chapman admits, a forum on the topic wouldn’t have happened in Clark County. Child prostitution was a little-known and misunderstood problem.

“This is an awareness day,” he told the packed sanctuary, which also included politicians, such as Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard, state Rep. Jaime Herrera and Clark County Commissioner Marc Boldt. “If you go back five months, I didn’t really know much about this topic.”

Now, sadly, Chapman said, he does.

The topic of child prostitution gathered steam locally in July after Clark County officials began networking with the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force, a group led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and also began meeting with Shared Hope International founder Linda Smith, a former member of Congress.

In December, The Columbian ran a series of stories about prostitution on both sides of the Columbia River.

Portland police officers urged Clark County officers to get involved in this year’s Operation Cross Country, saying there was more of a child sex trafficking problem in Vancouver than local officials realized. About 40 percent of child prostitutes picked up in Portland are from Clark County, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Chapman and Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Dobbs and Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Duncan Hoss took the prompting.

They realized the local operation would be a complex process. So the three officers mobilized police interviewers, advocates, undercover johns, and other officers and social service workers.

The day of the sting, police used two venues: a house to meet girls for “dates” and an unidentified school.The pimps and adult prostitutes detained during the operation were taken to the school to be questioned and arrested. Juvenile prostitutes also were questioned by police, but they were turned over to the state’s Child Protective Services instead of being arrested, Hoss said.

By federal initiative, a minor is considered not old enough to consent to sex trafficking and is treated as a victim.

To draw girls to the sting house, undercover johns trolled online Web sites for ads. An officer called girls to arrange “dates.”

Several girls came to the sting house throughout the day. Some were driven by pimps, Dobbs said. Some drove themselves. Most were 16 or in their upper teens, and one 16-year-old prostitute was found with a handgun in her purse.

As it turned out, Vancouver officers recovered as many juvenile prostitutes as Portland officers did: two.

One of the prostitutes rescued in Portland was from Vancouver.

With four juvenile prostitutes rescued, the Vancouver-Portland metro area tied with several cities for fourth most recoveries, Dobbs said.

So what’s next in fighting child prostitution? Recognizing the problem is the first step, Chapman said. “I know the more we look at it, the more we’ll find,” he said.

No future operations are yet planned.

source: http://www.columbian.com/article/20091108/NEWS02/711089971/National+sting+finds+juvenile+prostitutes