It came as a surprise to many readers that bucolic Bainbridge Island was the source of four arrests for prostitution over the weekend.
Police were also quick to comment that this sort of thing isn’t new to the island — those involved just haven’t been prosecuted in at least 15 years.
“We’re taking a proactive move to handle some of this criminal activity,” said Bainbridge Police Lt. Sue Shultz.
It didn’t take long for commenters on our original story to add their two cents about prosecuting prostitution.
“THE OLDEST PROFESSION IN THE WORLD AND THEY ARE STILL TRYING TO STOP IT!” wrote one commenter.
Shultz has heard all the arguments, but here’s one of her own, specific to this case.
“One of the things we’re looking at is that this is a smaller piece of what could be a larger problem,” she said.
That “larger problem” likely involves stolen property, narcotics, burglaries and other types of criminal activity. So the argument of prostitution being a victimless crime — certainly in this case — doesn’t pan out, she said.
“It’s just the beginning,” Shultz said of the investigation.
let me see if I have the story straight.
An informant, with the help of 4 different police agencies, solicited 4 hookers. Two were from Bremerton and two from Seattle.
The informant asked them to commute to Bainbridge. They complied. They were arrested and now Bainbridge has a prostitution problem?
My first impression is, what a waste of taxpayers money.
my second impression is that this is borderline entrapment.
Lastly, this is not a very environmentally sound method of arresting prostitutes. Find some closer to home, so everyone doesn’t have to drive all over. You know those pimps drive those big gas guzzlers!