CITY VICE SQUAD REPLACES RAPE UNIT

Target: Police Officials Say "Indoor Prostitution" Is Growing Fast

The Anchorage Police Department has disbanded a rape-prevention team
in order to create the first city vice squad since 1999.

It is targeting what the police call "indoor prostitution." Sgt.
Kathy Lacey, head of the new vice unit, said brothels, disguised as
other businesses such as massage and escort services, are "growing
exponentially." She doesn't know how many there are but points to the
number of suspect advertisements in the Yellow Pages as evidence they
are widespread.

Formed on Sept. 1, the six-member unit also targets drug dealing,
gambling and after-hours bars.

In an understaffed police force, the shift to vice enforcement means
taking away officers who used to work in the crime intervention unit
that focused on sexual predators in the downtown area.

"We evaluated what we were doing, and even though it was as proactive
as it seemed, it was still very reactive," Police Chief Walt Monegan
said of the crime intervention unit. "We're going to approach this
more holistically."

Street-level vice crimes fester and often escalate to more dangerous
crimes, police said. They point out that sex predators prey on
prostitutes; drug addictions often lead to thefts; and criminals
congregate at after-hours clubs.

In July, at least two people were shot and injured in a parking lot
melee at an after-hours club in Mountain View, and police still don't
know what happened.

The new unit is going after crimes that patrol officers don't have
time to, Lacey said. She said officers are so busy keeping up with
emergency calls that they don't have time to put together longer
investigations.

Monegan said much of the indoor prostitution growth is from
streetwalkers who are now operating from private homes and
apartments, using cell phones to contact customers and relying on
word-of-mouth advertising.

The prostitutes, he said, are getting smarter.

"Policing in any community is a work in progress, and as the
criminals become more clever, we have to respond to that," Monegan said.

The city does not track the number of escort services. They operate
under a clause in the adult business laws that says they do not need
to register with the city if they do not have a business address. If
the service just has a phone or Web site, it does not need a license.

The police department has restructured periodically, including
assigning officers to neighborhoods in 1997, then to specific types
of crime in 2001.

The crime intervention unit started several years ago to address
Anchorage's high rate of rape, police spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman
said. It aimed to step in ahead of crimes, particularly the sexual
assaults against women leaving downtown bars late at night.

In the year before the unit broke up, it collected 90 DNA samples to
put in the police database of potential predators and made five
sexual assault arrests, among other arrests. It also transported 200
to 300 intoxicated people, mostly women, home, Honeman said.

Honeman said the rides home may have prevented rapes. But Monegan
concedes, "In many cases the detectives became, by default, cab drivers."

Police Capt. Ross Plummer, who has been looking at rape statistics in
the downtown area to understand how effective the crime intervention
unit was, said, "What (the numbers) are showing for us is that the
activity going on is not anything that CIU could prevent."

Plummer said most rapes in Anchorage are taking place in hotel rooms
and apartments. Was the unit effective? "Maybe," he said. "Maybe not."

Monegan said police can go after the same offenders a different way.
He said predators that end up downtown looking for victims start out
going to massage parlors or after-hours places "to find cooperative
women first because they have a need to fill, if you will."

The vice unit, using many of the same officers as the crime
intervention unit, started Sept. 1. Up to the beginning of last week,
the unit had arrested four women on prostitution charges, including
one in a business on the 800 block of East Seventh Avenue called The
Parlor. It has also arrested one person on charges of growing
marijuana and is investigating two suspected crack houses.

"This is good, it gets to the little stuff that leads to the bigger
stuff," said Paul Bauer, who chairs the Anchorage Assembly's public
safety committee.

But not everyone agrees with the change. The crime intervention
officers who had become a fixture at some downtown bars will no
longer be a deterrent for sex predators, critics say.

Anchorage has a serious rape problem, and it is getting worse, said
Anna Fairclough, who heads Standing Together Against Rape and who
chairs the Anchorage Assembly.

Fairclough said her organization was assured by the police and
mayor's office that the new unit would be as effective as the crime
intervention officers in fighting sexual assaults. But Fairclough
says she is not convinced.

John Pattee, owner of the Gaslight Lounge and the Avenue Bar downtown
and board member of the Downtown Community Council, said the crime
intervention officers made downtown safer.

John Perry, owner of the Woodshed Lounge on Third Avenue, said police
were well placed patrolling downtown at night.

"I'd rather see them on the streets stopping violent crimes," he
said. "I'd rather see them leave the lesser of the two evils alone
and go after the greater evil."

Honeman said it is just a different strategy. "Crimes are cyclical.
We are now focusing on other pieces of the puzzle."