Pr. George’s prostitution sting happened today without arrests or live tweets

Washington Post ^ | 5/6/2014 | Lynh Bui

[markomalley]

Prince George’s County police conducted a prostitution sting Tuesday but didn’t make any arrests or send live tweets during the operation as it had planned to do, the department said.

The department said it decided to hold off on providing real-time updates about the sting to prevent revealing the identities of the undercover officers on the county police’s vice unit, after plans for the social media operation received international attention and criticism.

Prince George’s police announced last week that it had planned to live-tweet the sting as a deterrent, but critics said documenting the sting would harm innocent people who had not been convicted of crimes and drive sex workers further underground.

The sting “took place over several hours in the southern part of the county,” according to a statement from Prince George’s police released Tuesday afternoon. “On average, the unit arrests five to 10 johns during similar operations. Today, no johns were arrested.”

Officials are saying today’s sting — which police said was targeting clients seeking prostitutes and not the prostitutes themselves — was a success.

[markomalley]

Two points:

• This is the classic self-fulfilling prophecy: widely advertise a sting and then act surprised when the targets of the sting opt to not be stung.
• Also, this is one of those situations where the cops can claim victory no matter what happens: had they busted hundreds of people, they'd have claimed victory by identifying multiple scumbags...but since they busted nobody, they claim victory because they scared the scumbags off.

Classic no-lose situation.

[willywill]

yes, almost as logical and brilliant as the gun buy back programs.

[COBOL2Java]

P.G. County’s just across the border from Washington DC. I wonder how many Johns were Congresscritters.

[Sirius Lee]

They used to have prostitute parades. They would round them up around K Street and the cops would march them across the 14th Street Bridge to VA and threaten to arrest them if they came back. They’d mill around on the other side until 5AM and then go home.

[Rutabega]

I admit to having only my first sip off coffee, but I have to ask someone—do the police make a habit out of announcing to the public the dates of when they are planning an undercover sting operation? If so, what’s the arrest rate on that type of operation? It seems unbelievably counter-intuitive.

[Verginius Rufus]

When I saw the headline, I thought Prince George is just a baby--how could he be the target of a prostitution sting?

But the story is about a county named for an earlier Prince George.

[themidnightskulker]

“Prince George’s County police conducted a prostitution sting Tuesday but didn’t make any arrests”

Most telling part of the article, and all you really need to read.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

but critics said documenting the sting would harm innocent people who had not been convicted of crimes and drive sex workers further underground.

[Mental image of prostitutes trolling Luray Caverns for horny tourists.]

Maryland "Freak State" PING!

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

They didn’t make arrests because they announced the freakin’ sting to the world a week ago!!!!

[Albion Wilde]

The sting “took place over several hours in the southern part of the county,”

Capitol Heights, Anacostia, etc etc

[Albion Wilde]

Not in that area.

[COBOL2Java]

Not in that area.

Well...you never know...