Sex trade moves from streets to Net

In the cat-and-mouse world of vice cops and prostitutes, there’s always a new twist on the oldest profession.

In Colorado Springs, that means the sex trade has moved from the streets to the Internet, according to a detective credited recently with putting a dent in the lucrative illegal escort business.

The beat he patrols is Web sites where escorts with names like “Kitten” and “Sensuous Sasha” brazenly advertise, posting provocative photos, phone numbers and links to their own sites.

“I am a 23 year old professional full service escort,” one woman writes on a Web site. For a $200 “donation,” she offers an hour of “companionship.” “Anything in addition to this that occurs is a matter of choice between consenting adults.”

“Full service” is an industry term for willing to have intercourse, the detective said, and many escorts who engage in prostitution try the “consenting adults” argument.

It doesn’t work, said the detective, who is assigned to the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Unit.

He was recognized by City Council last month for going undercover and arresting 15 alleged escorts and another who allegedly was acting as a madam for about 10 others.

He spoke to The Gazette with the agreement his name would not be used because he works undercover.

Of the 75 escorts now working around Colorado Springs, the detective said, most are independent, buying their own advertisements and setting their own appointments.

Although it is not illegal for an escort to take money to go on dates or dance in the nude, any escort working in Colorado Springs must have a business license.

These licenses cost $750 for individuals or escort companies. No licensed escort services are in Colorado Springs, according to city officials, though one business is applying.

Even with a license, it is illegal for an escort to engage in sexual activity. As with most other illegal activities, the money is too good for the law to be much of a deterrent, the detective said.

“Sex is where it’s at,” one escort told him after she was arrested.

A recent prostitution sting was unusual in only one respect, the detective said. He called an escort he found on the Internet, and she invited him back to her apartment, he said.

Most in the business prefer to meet anywhere else: a client’s house, a motel room or a room kept just for work.

After arriving, the sting followed a familiar script. The woman accepted money and agreed to have sex.

The detective arrested her on suspicion of prostitution and working as an unlicensed escort. A drug possession charge was added after investigators found nearly $6,000 worth of methamphetamine in crystallized, “ice” form in her home.

The penalty for escorts working without a license is up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail, the same as for prostitution.

Drug use and distribution commonly go hand in hand with escort services, said Sgt. Jim Rodgers, who supervises three detectives assigned to keep tabs on escort services, massage parlors and prostitution.

Rodgers said the connection between some escorts and drug trafficking justifies prostitution stings and police attention.

Escorts also risk being beat up, robbed, killed or catching sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, which causes AIDS, Rodgers said.

“It’s a sick cycle,” Rodgers said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-4813 or anthony.lane@gazette.com