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Toledo police cracking down on Craigslist prostitution

Report by Lisa Rantala - email | bio

Posted by LS

TOLEDO (WTOL) - Toledo police are cracking down on the popular web site Craigslist.com. It started days before the web site managers announced steps to stop illegal prostitution on the site.

News 11 went onto Craigslist and clicked on erotic services. We found many listings that police say are prostitution. 

Here in the Toledo area, they say hundreds of men and women are advertising, selling and soliciting themselves.

Prostitution has gone off the streets and into your computer. "When we're out there, they often times put postings on the Internet saying the po-po, meaning the police or vice, are out." Chief Kenney tells us.

Ads of women for men, men for men, men for women and even transsexuals put up their posts to make $800-1200 a day.

"A lot of them are drug addicts themselves. It's not uncommon for us to find needles on them," says Kenney.

Even though they're not out in public, police say they still affect the public's safety. "We've had undercover officers that they've tried to rob at gunpoint."

So, they dedicated one detective to surf the net. His main focus is to look for juveniles, but he also stops when seeing dangers like this: Police say he called himself Sunday and talks about pleasure and his carmel skin. But the man in the picture is 34-year-old Jacky Easterly who is positive for HIV, police tell us.

They called his ad, met him at a hotel and when they say he agreed to perform sex acts for money, they took him in.

"It's been out there since man has been on earth. We're not going to stop it. We just want to make quality of life as best as we can," says Kenney.

Just this week, Craigslist said it will require posters like this to give them a phone and credit card number they say they'll share with the police. Though officers say it will take a lot more work to get them all off for good.

"It's not something that's new. It's something that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to keep the clamps on it."