JohnTV

6/5/2010 – OKC, OK — (from journalrecord.com by Brian Brus)

Are prostitution business opportunities being missed in the Oklahoma City tourism industry? Or are sex workers so biz savvy already that they’re able to sidestep arrest?

A quick overview of the Oklahoma City Police Department’s arrest records for the last 12 months would suggest that prostitutes simply aren’t tapping into major conferences and trade shows.

The dates on which 213 johns, prostitutes, pimps and illicit massage services, escorts and dancers were most often arrested since June 2009 failed to overlap with Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau events in any significant manner.

That revelation began as a challenge from our editor, “Why can’t you guys find stories like this?” pointing out the headline, “Prostitutes flock to South Africa ahead of World Cup 2010.”

Well, yeah, why not?

After all, city leaders keep reminding us, we’re a big league city now, which means that we loves us all things sportish. If crime is being committed somewhere else in the world, it certainly could happen here as well.

So we started with a request to the city police department via the state’s Open Records Act for arrest data, just for grins and giggles. Officials were very prompt in response, which shouldn’t really surprise most of us remaining in the traditional (i.e. newspaper) news gathering industry around these parts – the Oklahoma City municipal government generally has very good management practices and open access to information.

To read the rest of the article, follow this link to the Journal Records website.