7 Things You Learn As A Cop Pretending To Be A Hooker
By Robert Evans Anonymous
[an excerpt]
Where you have people, you will have prostitution. That’s been an immutable law for however long civilization has been around. But now, where there are prostitutes, there are also police officers doing their best to bust them and their clients. We’ve talked with several illegal sex workers over the years, but we recently had a chance to sit down with a pair of police officers — John and Jane — who carried out sting operations against street-level prostitutes in a large American city. Here’s what we learned …
7 Lady Cops Play Hookers, Fake Cops Play Johns
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The division of labor in a prostitution sting is inherently unfair. Men either get to play Johns — spending their night picking up prostitutes — or they get to lay in wait for one of the female cops to score a real John, and then jump out and arrest him. Our source John described the work as “a lot of fun” and noted there was “a sporting aspect” to it, while also admitting that for the women it could be “sketchy as hell.”
“In [CITY], it tends to be more of a cowboy situation … Usually they’ll assign it to a sergeant, he takes his crew out — as you would expect, there tend to be fewer female cops than males, so they get tapped from anywhere in the district.”
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“Sorry, Sheriff. We know you have a city to run, but these fishnets aren’t gonna wear themselves.”
Our source Jane pointed out that “female officers will get tapped to do this nonsense before they’ve even done a day on patrol.” She noted that “there wasn’t much explaining. You’re asked to do it … but they don’t have many females and you kinda feel like you’re expected to take one for the team.”
Some male cops actively pretend to be Johns, soliciting prostitutes so as to bust them. Our source John looked, in his own words, “like a cop,” so his job was to hang around undercover lady cops and swoop in to make the bust when they caught a would-be customer. Neither of our sources reported receiving much training for this job. As Jane told us, “It’s ‘adapt and overcome.’ You don’t get a lot of training on how to act like a prostitute.”
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“These are what we call ‘functional props.'”
But while there’s not much training you can do for the job of “standing around and waiting for someone to pay [for sex],” there IS a lot of preparation involved in setting up a prostitution sting …
6 Camouflage Is Step One
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John needed to blend in enough that no one would question his presence on a street corner in a bad part of town. Fortunately, there’s one job you’ll find in every city in America that acts as your pass card to any neighborhood: pizza delivery guy.
“I’d have a pizza hat so I could look like I was involved in pizza delivery,” he told us. So if you’re ever looking to pay for some strange, but you see a pizza guy with a high-and-tight haircut standing nearby, maybe move down a couple of blocks. Especially if it’s summer and he’s wearing a jacket: “You always want to wear a jacket, because you’re armed … when it’s hot, that looks weird.”
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The worst part about getting arrested by a guy carrying pizza? He won’t let you have any.
At this point during the interview, our source Jane piped up, “Try doing it as a girl!” She elaborated: “I always try to wear a jacket — even a short-sleeve jacket — so I can conceal a weapon. I know other females who would not wear weapons … but I’m paranoid. You always need a badge. I’d tuck that into a shirt; the jacket conceals that. You can’t look like you’re trying too hard.”
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5 People Sometimes Recognize You
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It’s common for cops to work in the same cities they grew up in. This is normally a good thing — it means they’ve got a connection to the place they work, and hopefully some insight into daily life there. But for female cops who wind up fake-hooking, it can lead to some awkward encounters. As Jane related, “I actually grew up in [City] … each district is broken down into sections. They put me in Section 5. I grew up in Section 5. I told them this wasn’t a good idea — I’d lived there my entire life …”
Naturally, they didn’t listen, and Jane was deployed in full hooker regalia to her home streets, because there’s no way that could go terribly wrong. “We go to the area, I get out, not even there five minutes when someone recognized me and asked how the academy was going.”
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“You know, the academy … for police … to become a cop … Wait, where are you going!?”
That blew her cover for the day, but it wasn’t as bad as what happened to a colleague: “I was with this particular girl, at a bus stop getting Johns. A car stops, and we think it’s someone [trying to hire them] … a woman gets out and starts yelling at [the other cop] stuff like, ‘This isn’t the way!’ Just yelling at her. And it turns out this is someone she went to high school with, crying ‘Let me help you, come with me.’ Meanwhile, she’s trying to show her badge and be like ‘I’m working here’ … Her friend was slightly embarrassed, and drove off. That was my first day.”
And the last day that woman ever considered attending her school’s 10-year reunion.
Of course, every neighborhood isn’t a hotbed of street-level prostitution. With prostitution stings, as with real estate …
4 Nothing Matters More Than Location
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Prostitution occurs everywhere. But in the wealthier parts of a city, it primarily takes the form of high-priced escort services. Our sources were busting street-level prostitutes, which meant rolling out to “known prostitution areas.” Jane recalled, “They’d … generally drop us off at a gas station so it wouldn’t look that obvious. The worse the neighborhood, the more everyone knows everyone else. So you have to be careful getting dropped off, so it doesn’t look too obvious.”
But there’s significant variety even within the parts of a city where ladies of the night ply their trade. The sketchy area has a different style than the county line.
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My anaconda won’t get none / Because I’m im-pri-soned
Race is also an important factor in this kind of work. “A Caucasian lady doing that in inner-city [CITY] won’t have a whole lot of luck,” John said. “That’s not to say they don’t exist — I saw a Korean prostitute who called herself ‘China.’ She was out there a good six months before her family scooped her up or … something horrid.”
Unfortunately, “something horrid” is just as likely as any potentially happier ending. There’s not much empirical data on the career trajectory of street-level prostitutes, but what data we have suggests most of these women are subject to around a dozen violent assaults each year. Mind you, that’s out of hundreds and hundreds of ‘tricks,’ because …
3 [Hookers Finding Clients –]
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As Jane told us, “When I started, I had the impression … that you had to be attractive.” But she quickly found that the best way to blend in was to look like she’d just “rolled out of bed … I would actually put grease in my hair to make it look like I was filthy. I’d make sure my hair wasn’t brushed. The stuff that’s in movies, how a prostitute looks … on the street, it goes the exact opposite.”
Reality is less Pretty Woman and more “the depressing first draft of Pretty Woman.”
Prostitution is so common in major cities…
Here’s Jane: “We didn’t need much in the way of tactics; it was just walking on the corner. People would pull up and ask how much.”
In fact, she recalled accidentally passing for a prostitute well before she ever started working as a cop: “I grew up in the inner city … you know how teenagers dress provocatively? I was on E Avenue as a teenager, we were literally just waiting for a bus, and cars would ask how much. People are bold because they can be.”cracked.com
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THE HOLY BIBLE ON PROSTITUTION
Prostitution is often referred to as the “oldest profession.” Indeed, it has always been a common way for women to make money, even in Bible times. The Bible tells us that prostitution is immoral. Proverbs 23:27-28 says, “For a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit she lies in wait, and multiplies the unfaithful among men.”
God forbids involvement with prostitutes because He knows such involvement is detrimental to both men and women. “For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of hell” (Proverbs 5:3-5 NKJV).
Prostitution not only destroys marriages, families, and lives, but it destroys the spirit and soul in a way that leads to physical and spiritual death. God’s desire is that we stay pure and use our bodies as tools for His use and glory (Romans 6:13). First Corinthians 6:13 says, “The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
Although prostitution is sinful, prostitutes are not beyond God’s scope of forgiveness. The Bible records His use of a prostitute named Rahab to further the fulfillment of His plan. As a result of her obedience, she and her family were rewarded and blessed (Joshua 2:1; 6:17-25). In the New Testament, a woman who had been known for being a sexual sinner—before Jesus forgave and cleansed her from sin—found an opportunity to serve Jesus while He was visiting in the home of a Pharisee.
The woman, recognizing Christ for who He is, brought a bottle of expensive perfume to Him. In regret and repentance, the woman wept and poured perfume on His feet, wiping it with her hair. When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for accepting this act of love from the “immoral” woman, He admonished them and accepted the woman’s worship. Because of her faith, Christ had forgiven all her sins, and she was received into His kingdom (Luke 7:36-50).
When speaking to those who refused to believe the truth about Himself, Jesus Christ said, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32).
Just like anyone else, prostitutes have the opportunity to receive salvation and eternal life from God, to be cleansed of all their unrighteousness and be given a brand new life! All they must do is turn away from their sinful lifestyle and turn to the living God, whose grace and mercy are boundless. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). gotquestions.org
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