The battle against prostitution has taken on a new look in recent years.
In the old days, the San Diego Police Department's vice unit would mostly check on strip clubs and street corners downtown and hit the peep shows and massage parlors on University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard.
Now, in addition to patrolling the streets, officers are surfing the Internet. Less than three years ago, there were about 50 Web sites featuring San Diego-based escorts, Sullivan said. Today there are hundreds, and it's a multimillion-dollar business in San Diego, according to industry insiders.
"Our detectives spend almost as much time on the computer as they do on the street," said Sgt. Mark Sullivan of the vice squad.
The officers still go on patrol and take responsibility for all crimes occurring inside adult-entertainment establishments, including violations of the "no-touch" rule. But the vice squad has branched out to also use phony escort Web sites to round up prostitutes.
To pull off these stings, San Diego's 22-member vice squad must be well-versed in online lingo, which is different from what is used on the street.
Johns, or clients, are called "hobbyists," and they are looking for a GFE, or "girlfriend experience." And the online pimps seem a far cry from the stereotypical, Cadillac-driving street pimps.
"The Internet pimp is a Web designer, a computer geek," Sullivan said. "And unlike on the street, the pimp works for the girl."
The change in emphasis seems to suit the public just fine.
In the early 1990s, the department embarked on what was then an unprecedented study of community attitudes toward the sex business. Vice detectives took residents on ride-alongs to adult entertainment spots and then asked them to comment on the behavior they witnessed.
The study found that community members wanted the police to fight prostitution, but ranked adult entertainment seventh in a list of eight priorities, below home break-ins, vehicle thefts, underage drinking, speeding enforcement, shoplifting and graffiti.
It also indicated that of all vice operations, regulating nude or topless dancers fell to the bottom of the priority list.
Vice detectives say the clubs' low spot on the priority list is in many ways warranted, even though they know that violations of the city's "no-touch" rule regularly occur.
Nonetheless, club owners still worry about vice raids and the effect they can have on profits. The prospect of police disrupting business was so great to Cheetahs owner Michael Galardi that he made payoffs to protect his investment.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Galardi gave money to City Councilmen Ralph Inzunza, Michael Zucchet and the late Charles Lewis in hopes of getting the city's law repealed. The councilmen say any payments were properly reported as campaign contributions.
However, despite Galardi's actions, police believe that as far as prostitution and more serious crimes are concerned, the clubs are as "clean as ever," Sullivan said.
"The owners invest too much in the business to take risks."
