Fayetteville Police Arrest Four in Prostitution Sting
By: Cassidy Hodges
Updated: April 12, 2012
The Fayetteville Police
Department conducted a sting operation Wednesday night that resulted in the
arrests of four people.
Police didn't want to release the name of the hotel because officers actually chose where they would meet.
So they didn't want to hurt one business' name by connecting it to these crimes.
"This is something that could potentially damage their business," says Sargent Craig Stout with the Fayetteville Police Department.
The perils of prostitution,
"You don't want to be labeled as the place where prostitution is taking place," says Stout.
It's a profession posing problems for the public.
"There are a lot of things like that that we may not be aware of until it gets brought to our attention and then we definitely want to focus on that."
So when the Sleep Inn in Fayetteville called police a few weeks ago - hoping to get a shady character out of their hotel investigators went to work on websites.
"We would go onto these sites with one of these people trying to engage in prostitution."
Law enforcement agencies around the state say sites like Backpage.com and Craigslist.org are easy places for people to post ads for escorts or massages and they say a lot of these ads are shams to sell sex.
"Other agencies in the area have also been doing other type of operations so it just made sense that if it was happening in other cities, it was probably happening here."
So officers went to web answering ads and even posting their own.
"You would set up a meeting time, we chose a local hotel, they would come in, talk to our undercover officer, and agreement was made basically, money for sex, at that point we would place them under arrest," says Stout.
Wednesday night police arrested Amanda Haynes, Shauna Hosotetler, and Brigitt Hawkins for prostitution.
Joe Jackson -- also arrested for sexual solicitation.
These crimes are just misdemeanors, but Sgt. Stout says prostitution bleeds into other more dangerous crimes.
"Other activities that go along with prostitution, whether it's the violence, drugs--one of those, that's whenever it starts making it a little bit more serious."
So the Fayetteville PD is glad to put a small dent in the prostitution problem in Northwest Arkansas.
Police say in the past few weeks they've even seen incidents where an assault and a robbery were each started because of prostitution, when someone didn't fulfill their agreement and actually pay for sex.
Investigators say that's just proof that prostitution does lead to more violent crimes.
Police didn't want to release the name of the hotel because officers actually chose where they would meet.
So they didn't want to hurt one business' name by connecting it to these crimes.
"This is something that could potentially damage their business," says Sargent Craig Stout with the Fayetteville Police Department.
The perils of prostitution,
"You don't want to be labeled as the place where prostitution is taking place," says Stout.
It's a profession posing problems for the public.
"There are a lot of things like that that we may not be aware of until it gets brought to our attention and then we definitely want to focus on that."
So when the Sleep Inn in Fayetteville called police a few weeks ago - hoping to get a shady character out of their hotel investigators went to work on websites.
"We would go onto these sites with one of these people trying to engage in prostitution."
Law enforcement agencies around the state say sites like Backpage.com and Craigslist.org are easy places for people to post ads for escorts or massages and they say a lot of these ads are shams to sell sex.
"Other agencies in the area have also been doing other type of operations so it just made sense that if it was happening in other cities, it was probably happening here."
So officers went to web answering ads and even posting their own.
"You would set up a meeting time, we chose a local hotel, they would come in, talk to our undercover officer, and agreement was made basically, money for sex, at that point we would place them under arrest," says Stout.
Wednesday night police arrested Amanda Haynes, Shauna Hosotetler, and Brigitt Hawkins for prostitution.
Joe Jackson -- also arrested for sexual solicitation.
These crimes are just misdemeanors, but Sgt. Stout says prostitution bleeds into other more dangerous crimes.
"Other activities that go along with prostitution, whether it's the violence, drugs--one of those, that's whenever it starts making it a little bit more serious."
So the Fayetteville PD is glad to put a small dent in the prostitution problem in Northwest Arkansas.
Police say in the past few weeks they've even seen incidents where an assault and a robbery were each started because of prostitution, when someone didn't fulfill their agreement and actually pay for sex.
Investigators say that's just proof that prostitution does lead to more violent crimes.
