Good Positive Legal News - Some asked for
I have been hesitant to report this not to jinx it but....
First background - as many folks know I get private information from escorts about busts, bad clients etc via my e-mail List since 1999. We now are down to 320 after many have moved or retired from a peak of about 1100 years ago. I also have had various industry-friendly lawyers feeding me information and can refer folks to friendly attorney's I have never made a dime from any escort, got freebies or deals - all free and takes a great deal of time. Now in process of slowly winding down.
In addition, I monitor the reported felony prostitution-related bookings which we had a huge number of in the past. If a companion has a phone helper or driver since it involves more than one person, it is under AZ law a criminal enterprise with serious mandatory prison sentences vs mere 15 days on the first offense for prostitution. That took down most all of the local agencies or they shut down. Then, of course, we had Project Rose roundups to Bethany Bible Church to be "saved" from prostitution. Then the AZ law making it a pandering felony to assist or encourage which shut down the four locally run forums years ago. I was good friends with Jack who was also feeding me information from his contacts.
I have been monitoring and reporting on the zillions of these cases often in Superior Court for years mostly resulting in plea deals for probation instead of prison.
When Scottsdale made criminal the Arizona law requiring escort and massage licenses on all ads and to carry an ID card I monitored the Scottsdale police blotter and reported on many no escort license cases. BTW, I have never seen an ad or website that follows the law since it seems almost no one is applying for the required license with its public disclosure of information.
THE GOOD NEWS - cross fingers!
I have seen only a few new bookings since about the time Phoenix got its new Chief of Police. And those I have seen usually have other stuff like drug charges or those that appear to be real trafficking or underage cases not the zillions of pretend cases of the past or private consenting adults. The few prostitution cases I see seem to be street related (terrible looking mug shots often with sores from drug use etc)
I have always been against street work as a public nuisance which is a different world than private consenting adults.
Chandler and Mesa seem more active but not nearly as much as in the past.
FURTHER, in the last two FBI Joint Task Force national Reduce Demand stings (led by Cook Cty Sheriff) while most large cities reported many arrests I have seen none reported for Phoenix. It appears Phoenix did not participate vs actively so in past years.
Just last week there were 105 arrests in of all places a small town in Wisconsin! I get feeds of anything related to "prostitution" arrests nationally from Google feeds
Yes, I am a bit of a wordy nerd - probably by CPA background. And have a passion for positive intimacy and sexuality along with the adult freedoms enjoyed in Canada and much or the world (my site sexworktoronto.com)
All this started after New Time featured on the Front Page and article about our Liberated Christians (libchrist.com) couples group that generated huge numbers of single guys interested. I got interested in sexwork as a possible source for their needs decades ago since our over 100 couples wanted to stay a couples group, not including singles.
In summary, it appears with our new Chief of Police may be combined with huge vacancies in the Phoenix PD perhaps they are shifting to real crimes with real victims that might face guns vs. chasing consenting adults with big dangerous breasts.
As always I preach never discuss money for a sex act. Clearly have on ads an hourly rate for companionship with no expectation implied for any illegal sex.
Another gripe of mine is when ads do not include a general location. A few years ago the City of Phoenix became larger than Los Angeles in land mass not counting all the suburbs. I live in N Phoenix overlooking the North Valley. I really don't want to drive to Mesa or Chandler etc. So I pass on al ads when the general location is not given. I have a very busy personal and business life with a home office and not use to driving all over to meet someone. I also will never call to find a fee if it's not clearly stated in ad/website as a companionship fee - obviously not for sex since that would be illegal!
I would never respond to an ad or website without the cost listed for companionship. There are too many traps if have to discuss money on the phone, text or e-mail.
Further GFE was ruled by a Scottsdale jury to mean an illegal sex act. This is my pet peeve since I was one of the first to con the term on the alt.sex.prostitution newsgroup when we had 300 baud dial-up modems and packet readers. It meant a sincere connection and intimacy with the other as a human soul, just like a girlfriend, even if for an hour with a companion. It had nothing to do with any sex act.
While LE has been active until it seems recently Sheriff Joe is gone. First, he did his horseback roundups on Van Buren until the city sanitation dept said the "discharge" was too much to clean up.
Then he did raids on massage parlors but all the cases were tossed since his deputies had too much fun with the arrested gals. So Sheriff Joe did no more prostitution enforcement and is now gone. Sadly there were massive grants to fund Reduce Demand and go after sex trafficking for various police dept's. I do not know if the funding has stopped, all I can report is that it appears prostitution arrests of private consenting adults has dramatically declined over about the last year.
That is the potentially good news some folks wanted me to report!