Monday, April 23, 2007

Sure sign of spring

No, not dandelions. Rather, prostitution on the street. For my first 25 years in policing, I never saw street level prostitution in Lincoln. Now, it's not hard to find johns cruising for hookers, and hookers looking for johns--if you know where to look. It's a reflection, I think, of the depth to which addicts will sink in search of their next hit of either crack or meth. The low prices are probably the best indication of this.

Over the weekend, Sgt. Mike Bassett organized a special project in the area south of Lincoln's downtown--Just a couple blocks from the Governor's Mansion and a block from a City recreation center. In a couple of hours late Friday night and early Saturday morning, undercover police officers were propositioned by six men, all of whom were arrested for Pandering, a Class IV felony. The prices offered by these big spenders were $15 at the low end, and $50 at the high end.

This commerce has a horrible effect on neighborhoods, and we are committed to continuing our efforts to suppress it. As he has the past few years, I expect Sgt. Bassett will continue to put the heat on those who come to his beat looking for prostitutes. This is very difficult work, especially for the police officers who are posing as hookers. I will not name them, to protect their identity for future undercover work, but these are uniformed LPD street officers who were willing to adopt the persona of a prostitute for a few hours to make these arrests--in addition to the million and one other things they have on their plate.

Imagine how difficult and stressful (not to mention downright dangerous) it is to subject yourself to the process of negotiating with some repulsive cretin for sex. My compliments to these officers who did a great job of giving these johns something other than what they bargained for: a night or two in jail and a trip to court.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

All of us Lincoln poeple feel sooooooooooo much safer knowing that some jon is not getting his jollys with some low rent hoe-ho-hoo. Keep driving the jons to Nevada where the far left loons have it leagle.
Barbreak.net

Anonymous said...

Thanks to you and your officers for your efforts to make 'my' neighborhood safer. I appreciate your hard work.

Anonymous said...

After reading all the posts chief, it appears that you have a manager problem. Are most all your officers full of this resentment that is posted on these blogs? Wow the public has no idea of your internal problems, but now its becoming clear that there is a reason for long time officers leaving the force. May it be that this blog you have made is a bad idea?
amused

Anonymous said...

I think that you would be hard pressed to find a place of employement where given the opportunity to anonymously vent your frustrations you wouldn't find this level of banter. Anything that opens the lines of communication and gives insight to the department is a step in the right direction in my book.

Having a former cop in my family is a source of pride to me and seeing what Chief Cassidy and the LPD staff has accomplished is something I am very proud of. I haven't seen that in other communities. Thank you, Chief.

Anonymous said...

There is no management problem with the LPD. We have two kinds of cops: # 1) complainers, # 2) hard workers. The peeps who have been posting here that have been badmouthing the department are option # 1. They are the ones who should be looking for a new job as they are already on their way out and don't know it yet.

Anonymous said...

Reply to "Two kinds of cops"
Sounds like your Huge ego has been hurt. Perhaps mommy could put a smiley face on your next post.
Moderating the comments....ha, just like natzi Germany.

Anonymous said...

With a staff of over 400, there will also always be a few whiners.
I'm sure Casady expected the snipes, but was hoping for dialog.

I figured it was only a matter of time and moderation would need to be enabled. If not, you begin getting auto-generated spam and porn ads.

I also figured that would draw comments by a few angry morons who can't even spell "Nazi".

Anonymous said...

Reply to "Sounds like your Huge ego"

My ego hasn't been hurt. But I will spring to defend the department from a unwarranted attack. Here are your smiley faces :) :) :) :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Chief Cassidy for being pro-active in regards to this problem. Both of my children used to attend Everett Elementary and I would see the prostitutes and drug dealers while I was waiting to pick up my children from school.

To everyone who has a problem with what the police are trying to do:

WAKE UP PEOPLE! This is a problem. The area in question is near several schools! I would surely bet if this was happening near the school in YOUR neighborhood, you would want the police to do something about it.

Thanks again Chief!

Anonymous said...

Keep the pressure up on the "core " neighborhood. Don't back down and don't apologize.

student said...

im doing a report for school and i need to know the difference between our state undercover force and our local lpd undercover force.

thanks cheif!
keep up the good work