Article

Sting operation results in prostitution arrests

The sting involved a female police officer dressing up as a prostitute and waiting for people to make contact with her
Alexandra Isakova - Staff Writer

Five “Johns” discovered that the streets of downtown Binghamton are meaner than they appear after being arrested in a police sting operation for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex.

According to Lieutenant David Eggleston of the Binghamton Police Department, the sting started with the goal of decreasing prostitution, and it included officers patrolling the streets of Pine, Carroll and Stuyvesant. The five “Johns” were arrested and all were charged with patronizing a prostitute in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor. The sting involved a female police officer dressing up as a prostitute and waiting for people to make contact with her. Male offenders are commonly referred to as “Johns” in an attempt to conceal their identity.

Eggleston claims that the last six months have constituted the most successful period of the undercover operation, which has been conducted by the Binghamton Police Department’s Special Investigative Unit. Including this sixth sting, the unit has arrested 40 prostitutes and 31 “Johns.”

Prostitutes populate the downtown Binghamton area because it is a business area, as opposed to residential, has heavier traffic and allows easier access to drugs. Eggleston also says that the number of prostitution offenders has decreased as a result of the arrests made by the special investigative unit. Though the downtown area has its “regular” prostitutes and “Johns,” they are becoming less obvious. There are no records of Binghamton students either soliciting a prostitute or prostituting themselves.

New legislation was passed this August which states that those arrested for prostitution offenses will not only have their names published in local newspapers, but in newspapers of their home town as well.

In a press release, Mayor RIchard A. Bucci said, “This latest round of arrests should send a powerful message that if you engage in illegal activities in this city, you will be caught.”