Law Enforcement In Iowa Recognizes Craigslist Is A Tool, Not A Problem

from the good-for-them dept

Thu, Apr 30th 2009 11:34pm — Mike Masnick

While officials in neighboring Illinois are suing Craigslist for prostitution, it appears that law enforcement officials in Iowa know better. Brent writes in to note that police in Iowa have been using Craigslist as a tool to help crack down on prostitution. Of course, that doesn't make for headlines nearly as big as just blaming Craigslist...

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Filed Under: iowa, prostitution
Companies: craigslist

6 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 1 May 2009 @ 12:58am

Blame Cananda, Seems to be the new thing these days
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Tgeigs, 1 May 2009 @ 6:55am

Chicago
On behalf of my city, I would like to apologize. We may have great sports teams, restaurants, and night life, but we also are very keen on electing criminals and retards. Again, we're all very, very sorry.
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Francis Burdett, 1 May 2009 @ 7:35am

Whores and Craigslist
Police use of craigslist as a "easy" tool to fight prostitution would appear to be unsustainable.

If the escort runs an ad in the erotic services section, they are an easy mark for the police.

Even the dumbest escort would eventually realize that there is a high risk that their craigslist john was an undercover officer.

Thus the escorts will realize that they should go back to posting in the "casual encounters" section of the site.

And then from craigslist point of view, you are back to page one.
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Gabriel S., 1 May 2009 @ 9:17am

Re: Whores and Craigslist
Francis - Nobody claimed to be using Craiglist as the 'catchall' for all prostitution, nor did they say they were giving up standard or existing methods.

This is simply a tool, which when combined with existing efforts, will help the police catch these people. Very myopic of you.
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Jeremy, 1 May 2009 @ 10:38am

Re: Whores and Craigslist
Francis,

Thats the whole reason why blaming Craigslist is stupid. If the took out the erotic services section (like some politicians think they should), then the prostitutes would move to "casual encounters" or just move to another site thats harder for the police to find.
CL is not and should not be the only thing police use to crack down on prostitution. It should be one of many tools they use.
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J37, 6 May 2009 @ 1:14pm

Re: Prostitution
The world's oldest profession WILL be STOPPED!
Soon. We will eradicate drug use too!
This will not continue! To all you users and abusers,
johns and whores,
know that we are coming for you.
Your days are numbered.

//sarcasm
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