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Super Bowl Crackdown: Tampa Police Targeting Prostitutes

News Channel 8 photo by KATY HENNIG

Tampa police lead a crackdown on prostitution Monday and arrested 13 people on prostitution or lewd and lascivious charges.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2009

TAMPA - The Super Bowl brings thousands of visitors and plenty of money to the city. With that comes a notorious element: prostitution.

Tampa police say they are working to combat the problem. Monday morning, police conducted an operation to crack down on prostitution. By day's end, police had arrested 13 people on prostitution or lewd and lascivious charges.

Similar operations will continue all Super Bowl week.

"It's not going to end until the last plane of tourists leaves town," Tampa Police Capt. Bret Bartlett said.

The department will target everything from on-street prostitution to the prostitution that can come from strip clubs and massage parlors.

Officers don't have a goal for the number of prostitution arrests they're shooting for this week. But in the two weeks around the Super Bowl in Tampa in 2001, police made 24 prostitution arrests. In the same period in 2007 and 2008, police made 11 and 10 arrests, respectively.

The Tampa Police Department's main goal is to protect the public during Super Bowl week, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. The prostitution operations will help do just that, Bartlett said.

"It's not a victimless crime, especially when the prostitute's pimp comes busting through the door with a pistol," he said.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691

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