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By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER tmorgan@leader.net
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 Page: 1A
WILKES-BARRE – The petite woman in a bright yellow tank top and bluejeans
briskly walked down a South Main Street sidewalk and crossed into a parking
lot where a gray pickup had just pulled in.
“Here we go,” says officer Tom Harding as the woman made a beeline for
the passenger-side door.
Seconds later, a silver minivan pulled in front of the truck, blocking its
exit. Badge displayed, officer Ralph Elick swiftly approached the driver as
Harding ran to the passenger door and ordered the woman out.
The sex act the officers anticipated was about to occur would not happen,
at least not this night. The pair are given a warning and go their separate
ways.
Elick and Harding make up the city’s two-man Anti-Crime Unit. For the past
three years, the unit has patrolled streets, watching for criminal activity.
The focus has turned to prostitution during the past few weeks in response to
repeated complaints from city residents.
Three hours into their shift on a recent night, Elick and Harding have
already spotted two known prostitutes. They suspect a third woman is working
the streets, and they’re sure the white Monte Carlo circling the area was
driven by a “john” seeking the women’s services.
Wearing bluejeans, sweat shirts and baseball caps, the youthful-looking
officers survey the activity from behind the tinted windows of a rented
minivan. An unopened can of beer sits in the van’s drink holder, part of the
props they use to convince their targets they’re just normal guys.
The “working girls,” as Elick calls them, escape the untrained eye of a
reporter riding with the officers.
“It’s not like you see on TV,” Elick says. “People think they wear
miniskirts. It’s baggy shirts and shorts.”
Eye contact is the most telling sign that a woman is not a “normal girl,”
the officers say.
“When you drive past most people they don’t look at you. A prostitute will
peer into the car. She’ll give you a little wink,” Elick says.
When a suspect is spotted, one of the officers will exit the vehicle to
avoid scaring her off. The other will circle around and follow until they get
the sign.
“We ask open-ended questions. What can a guy do for fun around here,”
Elick says.
A normal woman will ignore them, or point them to various bars in the area.
To a prostitute, they are the words she’s looking to hear, Elick says.
On this night, the officers are focusing on South Main Street. Just before
10 p.m. they see a suspect at the intersection of Hazle Avenue.
“See how she’s looking around?” Elick says as the woman seats herself on
a bench near the Bi-Lo supermarket. “She’s sitting there by herself at this
time of night. Even most grown men would not sit on that corner this time of
night.”
Elick pulls into the Eckerd drugstore parking lot and drops off Harding and
a reporter and photographer riding with him. He circles back to try and pick
up the woman.
About 15 minutes pass before the minivan returns to the drugstore lot. The
woman did not proposition, Elick’s later explains. But the surveillance paid
off in an unexpected way. As he was returning to the parking lot, he saw the
woman in the yellow shirt, a known prostitute, flag down the gray pickup
truck.
The officers converged on the vehicle, then spent about 10 minutes talking
with the occupants. The stop resulted in a stern warning, but no arrests.
Normally, Elick explains, he and Harding would have followed the vehicle to
try to catch the pair in a sex act and cite them for open lewdness. He could
not do that this time, however, because Harding was out of the vehicle. Police
procedure requires two officers be present in those situations, he says.
“We nipped this one before it started,” Elick says.
The woman vehemently protested the stop, insisting she was out for a walk
to get some exercise. But the officers say they know otherwise.
“They couldn’t get their stories straight of how they met or how they knew
each other,” Elick says.
The officers know the woman well. As she walks away, Elick laments her
fate.
“That’s a really sad story,” he says. “She was an honor student, then
she got hooked on heroin. Now look at her. Her parents are beside
themselves.”
Drug addiction is a common theme among the women who work the streets, the
officers say.
Earlier in the night, the officers briefly tailed another known prostitute
who was once a nurse, but now a drug addict.
The officers watched as the woman walked in the area of South Main and
South streets, but it became obvious she was not working this night. Her
boyfriend was walking next to her. Usually when she’s working, he’s walking on
the opposite side of the street, they say.
Most of the women work for themselves. If there is a pimp, typically he is
the woman’s drug dealer. The women work day as well as night, but the prime
time is around 2 a.m., when the bars close, the officers say.
The increased enforcement has not stopped the sex-for-hire trade, but it
has made it more difficult, they say.
“They’re paranoid,” Harding says. “Half of them are telling us they’ve
turned down rides. They’re looking over their shoulders because they know
we’re out there.”
The officers say it’s hard to know how much money the women earn in a
night, but they suspect its a considerable sum. Price ranges go from $20 to
$40 for oral sex, and $40 to $60 for intercourse.
“I had one tell us she turned down seven rides that night. If she gets
even the minimum $20 per ride, that’s $140 right there,” Harding says.
The officers say they often speak with the women, encouraging them to seek
help for their problems and get off the street.
“They are human beings. We try to steer them in the right path, Obviously.
we don’t want to see them do this. To do this is a last resort,” Elick says.
Still, Elick says, they see the same faces over and over.
“It’s amazing, the work they put in walking the streets for hours. If they
just applied themselves to a normal job …”
Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at
829-7179.