Month: October 2005

Prostitution is not a new enterprise in the City of Richmond, or anywhere else in Christendom for that matter.

But, according to many Richmonders, more people are practicing the world’s oldest profession in River City than ever before. At the City Council meeting on Sept. 26, a number of people from a civic association in Battery Park , which is located on the citys North Side, testified to the severity of the problem in their district, citing instances of prostitutes “flashing” innocent bystanders, as well as non-camouflaged sexual activity between prostitutes and johns occurring in the clear light of day. The association’s members said they loved Richmond, but they did not love what the non-stop trafficking of sex was doing to their property value, and their children’s worldview.

After listening to the litany of complaints from the residents of Battery Park at the meeting, Councilman Chris A. Hilbert (3rd) vowed to introduce legislation in the near future that would help stem the tide of prostitution in Richmond.

Hilbert had already introduced one initiative to help combat the issue, recently hosting a Town Hall-style meeting with the Richmond Police Department in which local officials and the public discussed ways in which to address the problem. During the meeting, Police Chief Rodney Monroe presented a slide show of prostitutes that had been known to work the Chamberlayne Avenue corridor. One slide featured a transvestite prostitute, whom an audience member knew was camped out at the Red Roof Inn. The police chief made one call, and the prostitute was arrested there minutes later.

This year, the RPD also launched “Johns TV” on the citys public-access station, a controversial program that airs the faces of all those who have been convicted recently of soliciting a prostitute in Richmond.

On Sept. 30, this writer had the opportunity to witness one of the police departments undercover sting operations, which on this day happened to target johns.

From 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., I sat in an unmarked car with an RPD lieutenant in a parking lot across the street from a motel on Chamberlayne Avenue, where a rotating cast of female undercover officers from the RPD posed as prostitutes. The operation began at noon. By the time I joined the lieutenant, the department had already arrested four johns.

“Believe it or not, there is a demand for sex during the day,” the lieutenant told me, tongue-in-cheek. It is well known, even among non-shoppers, that the Chamberlayne Avenue corridor has long been a hotbed of prostitution in the city. Other popular spots include parts of Jefferson Davis Highway, First Street and West Grace Street.

The lieutenant, who shall remain nameless, had been working the prostitution beat for seven years. He said the volume of sex traffic had been relatively constant during that span, although he said there seemed to be a slight upsurge this year, at least on Chamberlayne Avenue.

“They seemed to have all migrated here,” he said.

The undercover officers who may or may not be armed, it’s their choice – were dressed in jeans and T-shirts, standard garb for female prostitutes in the city, the lieutenant said.

“They don’t look like they do on TV here, like they did on that HBO special,” the lieutenant said. “If theyre dressed up, theyre going to be a man, and those only come out at night. And some of the transvestites look rather attractive from a distance.”

Here’s a how a deal would go down during the sting: The johns would drive by and see the undercover pacing up and down the sidewalk, often twitching so as to imitate some kind of drug withdrawal. The john would pull over to the side of the road and talk to the officer, who would dictate the terms of the agreement. The officer would then “make the case,” which means that the john would agree to offer “something of value,” i.e. money or drugs, for some type of sexual activity ($20- $25 for oral sex and $30-$35 for intercourse are the standard rates, the lieutenant said).

The undercover officer would lead the john to the motel room, where two uniformed officers would be waiting to make the arrest. Once the arrest – a Class 1 misdemeanor – had been made, the RPD would issue a summons for the john to appear in court. The lieutenant said they did not have a problem with the johns appearing for their court date. A “SWAT” team was also camped out in the area, in the unlikely event that the operation went haywire.


During the hour that I was with the lieutenant, two arrests were made.
The johns run the gamut of the social order, from blue-collar workers to teachers to doctors and lawyers, the lieutenant said. “I’ve even some johns who were prominent members of a church,” he added. But no pastors. Just some deacons or such.

He said they dont see many johns that are repeat offenders, but he said they do arrest many of the prostitutes multiple times.

The lieutenant estimated that 99 percent of the prostitutes were addicted to some kind of drug crack, cocaine and heroin being the most popular.

Asked where prostitution sat on the department’s priority list, the lieutenant said near the top because prostitution went “hand-in-hand” with violent crime. “There’s more to it than sex,” he said. “Some of the girls rob the johns. And some of the prostitutes have been murdered.”

(Richmond.com, October 2005)