Sting tries to clean up Camden's prostitution alley

The police radio blared with chatter just before 6 p.m., less than an hour into the prostitution sting that Camden County authorities were conducting Thursday.

"Flannel shirt, black pants," a dispatcher said.

As Camden County Police Detective Tom Collins pulled up to the corner of Broadway and Spruce Street in an unmarked black SUV, he spotted the man.

"He got a black skull cap?" Collins asked, referring to a man wearing a black bandanna on his head.

"10-4," the dispatcher said.

Within seconds, police officers approached the man and told him to put his hands behind his back. He complied and was placed in the back of an unmarked white sedan, which would transport him to an inmate van nearby.

The arrest was part of an operation Thursday evening to catch men soliciting prostitutes along Broadway, which Camden County Police Lt. Anthony Carmichael describes as "a mecca of prostitution" because of its easy access to a highway and large collection of abandoned buildings.

The Police Department and the Camden County Prosecutor's Office perform the stings about twice a month on Broadway, sometimes looking for prostitutes, other times focusing on the men soliciting them.

Carmichael said police usually catch about a dozen people during the operations, which can last up to five hours.

On Thursday, two undercover female officers stood on each side of Broadway near Spruce, as a male officer posing as a pimp sat on the steps of a nearby building.

The men they arrest are from all over, police say: the suburbs, Camden, on lunch break from work, or just leaving the office. Some are professionals.

The police have orders not to chase the men if they try to speed off in cars - it would be risky to passersby to give chase to enforce a mere disorderly persons charge of loitering to commit prostitution.

But many of the men are caught quickly, police say. Some are married and plead with officers not to tell their wives, Carmichael said.

"It's a shock, because they're so focused on one thing, and that's to get the females," he said.

The wives usually find out anyway. Police post the names online of any men they arrest, and tow their vehicles.

For the prostitutes, it's different. Thomas DiNunzio, a sergeant with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office who helped start the operation two years ago, said the goal is to help them.

That's why the women, many of whom are addicted to heroin or other drugs, are offered a chance to get off the streets and into rehab, if they don't have outstanding warrants.

"It really does give these girls a shot," DiNunzio said.

He and others who are part of the operation say the prostitutes are easy to spot.

Along Broadway on Thursday evening, Collins, the detective, passed a dazed woman with a blue jacket and black pants holding a small red bag.

"She's probably been here awhile," he said. "God knows what's been done to her."

The Broadway corridor, he said, is often dotted with women like that. Some are as young as 19 and from the suburbs, he said.

Despite the problems with prostitution on Broadway, Collins and others say the stings at least deter more men from coming down to solicit.

"We're trying to just clean things up here," Collins said.

mboren@phillynews.com

856-779-3829 @borenmc