by Alison Bass | Apr 18, 2018 | conflicts of interest, human trafficking, law enforcement, media coverage, prostitution, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution
A few months ago, I was given access to hundreds of internal documents that had been obtained from the King County prosecutor’s office and other law enforcement in the Seattle area by public records requests. The documents revealed that prosecutors and police in...
by Alison Bass | Aug 26, 2017 | law enforcement, media coverage, pimps, prostitution, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, underage prostitution
“1,020 charged in national sex trafficking sting” blared the headline in the Chicago Sun Times earlier this month. The news story was essentially a rewrite of a press release issued by the Cook County Sheriff’s office with a very similar headline...
by Alison Bass | Dec 11, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, pimps, prostitution, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution
The recent shooting at a popular pizza joint in Washington, D.C. has as much to do with the current hysteria over sex trafficking as it does with the untrammeled spread of fake news on social media. The 28-year-old man who fired an assault rifle inside the Comet Ping...
by Alison Bass | Nov 21, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, pimps, prostitution, public health, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution, websites
The arrest of the CEO of Backpage, a website for sex work ads, as he stepped off a plane in Houston October 6, made headlines. Carl Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a California warrant and charged with pimping by the California Attorney General’s office. Two other...
by Alison Bass | Jun 15, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, prostitution, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution
Last Friday, the police chief of Oakland, California, resigned amid a growing scandal involving a number of his police officers who had sex with an underage sex worker while their supervisors looked the other way, according to reporting by the East Bay Express. The...
by Alison Bass | Jan 27, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, prostitution, public health, sex trafficking, sex work, Uncategorized
In early January, law enforcement in the Seattle area shut down a popular website used by sex workers to advertise their services and by customers to review sex workers. Police also raided a number of luxury apartments in Bellevue where women were allegedly selling...
