She hadn’t been in the motel room an hour when her cellphone rang. Perhaps this client would take the risk.
“This is Lushous,” she said in a soft, seductive voice. “You want to come see me today?”
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The client had found her on backpage.com, where she promoted herself as a busty woman in College Park eager for company. Strutting the streets in southern Prince George’s late at night was too old-school, too dangerous. All she needed was an Internet connection and a motel room key to adapt to the changed mores of the world’s oldest profession.
“For half an hour, it’s just $40, baby. Tell me what you want to do.”
Lushous wanted to use handcuffs. She was actually an undercover Prince George’s cop. If the man on the phone actually came to Room 241, he’d be walking right into the department’s latest sting operation in one of College Park’s motels.
It was the third in three months. Facilitated by Web ads, sex trafficking is now more common in daylight, a change that has forced the department to reimagine how it combats prostitution.
For police officials, prostitution is not victimless crime, said Kevin Davis, the county’s assisant police chief. Sex workers are prone to being raped and robbed. Some are victims of sex trafficking. The men who visit them are sometimes assaulted but are too embarrassed to report the attacks to police. And when an area becomes known for prostitution, local officials fear the reputation will hinder economic growth and redevelopment.
The need to deal with those issues has become so great that county police plan to establish a vice squad in 2013, in which officers such as Lushous would be dedicated to this sort of police work.
Today, detectives are more likely to troll the Web than stroll through the shadows. And cautious customers are more comfortable seeking a rendezvous during lunch or right after work.
“There’s been a shift,” Davis said. “There are far, far less street workers and overt signs that we tend to associate with prostitution.”
In the past five years or so, College Park has become a popular hub for prostitution, safer than most other hot spots, easily accessible from highways and with a cluster of low-rent motels along Baltimore Avenue. The City Council knows what’s going on and is working with motel owners in an effort to tighten regulations, such as prohibiting charging by the hour.
But on this day in November, Lushous and other officers were trying to deter men from ever paying for sex again.
Sharing Room 241 with her was another undercover officer with a nickname, a square-jawed, blue-eyed cop known as Pretty Boy. He pored through a stack of printed Web ads for women offering their services. He called each one.
“Are you doing out-calls today, sweetie?”
They had arranged the room so it would seem like they were just lonely travelers. Pretty Boy hung a crushed black suit on the rod and placed a used bar of Old Spice deodorant near the sink. He ditched his uniform for a T-shirt and blue jeans but kept on his wedding ring.
Lushous ruffled the sheets on the queen-size bed. She had lozenges to keep her voice smooth. She placed a package of condoms on the side table.
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