413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

The circuit most often used by pimps in San Diego includes: Anaheim, Orange County, Los Angeles, Las
Vegas, and, most recently, Phoenix. A larger circuit includes: Seattle, Alaska, San Antonio, Dallas,
Houston, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. However, law enforcement has seen an increase in the number of
arrests of women and girls from the San Diego area. There are many reasons why pimps work a circuit,
ranging from an increased law enforcement presence to a big event occurring in another city (e.g. boxing
matches in Las Vegas). As one local law enforcement officer explained,
They [pimps] do not like to stay put for too long because then they get known by the
police. They also do not want the girls to establish relationships, friendships and all that
so they have to keep on the move. (San Diego Law Enforcement Official)
Pimps will also test the demand in other cities by posting ads prior to their arrival. One local law
enforcement official noted,
I’ve had it where they’ll test run some place. They’ll post somewhere, say Arizona, they’ll
post a picture of their girl and they’ll see how many hits they get off of that, and
depending on how many hits they get, they will decide whether they are going to make the
trip out there or not, whether it’s going to be worth their while. (San Diego Law
Enforcement Official)
Motels and hotels play a key role in the UCSE, and establishing good relationships with motel and hotel
operators in a pimp’s hometown, as well as within the cities that he often travels to, is considered a good
business strategy. Some motel and hotel operators in San Diego have been found to be complicit in
underground commercial sex activities occurring on their premises. Pimps target certain types of motels,
particularly ones with outside room entrances, so that front desk staff cannot easily monitor their guests.
Some hotel operators are not always able or willing to oversee the front desk staff, who might be receiving
money from the pimp to keep quiet:
A lot of the hotel operators, we will tell them that it is your discretion and a lot of them
will tell them that they are out of there, they will kick them out. But there are a certain
number of hotels that will not and they know it, so they will use those hotels because of
that. That is kind of the deal with those hotels …And the people that are sitting behind the
counter are not the people that own the hotels so there is some insulation there. Their job
is just to rent rooms and they do not get anything from alienating customers so it is a
difficult situation there. (San Diego Law Enforcement Official)
Whereas lower end hotels and motels does not always cooperate with law enforcement, higher-end hotels
are more willing and eager to assist with investigations:
The higher-end places I think are more interested in keeping a clean atmosphere.
Whereas the lower end places, if you were to remove all prostitution from their place they
would go broke. That is their main customer. You have that different thing. Most the time
the nicer hotels we go and talk to are very interested in what we have to say. They do not
want any drama going on. They do not want the family from Nebraska to see Sea World
have their room next to some craziness going on. So they are happy to cooperate with us.
(San Diego Law Enforcement Official)
Although San Diego pimps do not tend to be as organized as Asian massage parlors and Latino brothels
(see following sections for more details), they do maintain a certain level of business savvy and acumen.
They try to keep a certain amount of distance from the day-to-day activities, do not keep a paper trail
(although many girls are found to keep daily earnings ledgers), and do not place any assets in their name.
Pimps who violate these rules, or do not know these rules, are the ones typically get caught by law
enforcement:
They are so disconnected from the girl and she is just so loyal to him and trained not to
speak about it or talk to us … they will not even mention that they have a pimp and we
will not even know that one exists, they will just give them the money. Those are the guys
that are almost impossible to get because you are not going to have witnesses against
them or have them physically involved in the actual acts. Those are the guys that know
what they are doing. They know not to use phones in their name, they know not to use
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