SOUTH SALT LAKE — Pacing back and forth on the sidewalk for about 25 yards while twirling her hair with her fingers, it didn't take long before a vehicle pulled up beside her.
"Are you looking for a good time?" she asks the driver. "I'm looking to make some money, you looking to buy? Of course I'm not a cop. Do I look like a cop to you? What about you? What do you want? How much money do you have?"
After the man offered to give the woman cash for a sex act, several large police officers come out from their hiding places and arrest the potential John.
It's a scenario that has played out regularly in South Salt Lake over the past couple of weeks where officers have been running prostitution stings, focusing on the Johns looking to pick up prostitutes on State Street.
"Recently there's been a real influx (of prostitutes)," said South Salt Lake police detective Darin Sweeten.
The result was dozens of arrests from all walks of life, including an off-duty police officer from California and a man who drove an ice cream truck. After the ice cream truck driver was arrested, police had to get behind the wheel of the vehicle themselves to move it out of the way.
The sting concentrated on State Street through South Salt Lake. Undercover officers posed as prostitutes. Newly purchased surveillance equipment — being used for the first time by the department during this operation — added a new element to the sting, recording high quality video and audio during each arrest.
Nearby undercover officers filmed each car as they approached the decoys. Each female officer carried a hidden microphone.
Inside a nearby building, a group of officers watched, listened and recorded each confrontation with the Johns as images were fed straight to their laptop computers.
Prostitution stings are typically held at all hours. On this particular day, the undercover officers started walking the street about noon.
"Any time of the day you can find this activity if you want it," Sweeten said. "We've found the middle of the day is just as effective as at night."
During the day's first arrest, a man allegedly offered the decoy $30 for sex. While the officer was being propositioned, two other vehicles pulled up behind the first car and parked. As soon as officers appeared from their hiding places and arrested the first man, one of the two other cars sped away while the driver in the other told police he had just stopped to clean his car.
The officers, not believing the man's story, told him he just won the lottery because the person in front of him who was arrested likely prevented him from the same fate. They told him to leave the area and warned him he might not be so lucky next time.
The first man was brought inside a rented business and booked. Officers with their laptops looked up his criminal history, immigration status, took a mug shot and presented him with a citation telling him to appear in court on another day.
After the man was given a ticket and released, however, he refused to leave. He broke down and cried with his face in his palms and tried to argue that he should not be arrested because he asked the woman if she was an officer.
"I say one, two, three times, I tell her, 'No cop, no cop,' " the man said.
Eventually, the officers threaten to put the man in jail for trespassing if he doesn't leave.
"Leave and don't come back," one officer offered as a parting note.
"We have the right to lie," Sweeten said of the decoys telling potential Johns they aren't officers. "In an operation like this, there are no parameters."
During the first week of the sting, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement joined South Salt Lake police in their operation. The focus of the sting, however, was on all Johns and not just illegal immigrants. ICE agents were only there in case they were needed, which was not on every arrest, Sweeten said.
During another arrest, the battery on the undercover officer's microphone went out just as the proposition was being made. The officers had a pre-arranged backup plan, however, and the decoy gave a visual signal, undetected by the John, telling the other cops who were watching to make their move.
Another man pulled up in a sport utility vehicle and seemed interested but said he had no money. About 30 minutes later, the man returned after stopping by an ATM, offered the undercover officer $50 for sex, and was arrested.
Compared to the first arrest, the man brought into the booking area was very calm and even appeared to slightly smile when his photo was taken for his booking mug.
"Now what?" he asked the officers.
The department held at least three other prostitution stings on State Street in the week that followed. Sweeten said after that, officers may concentrate on a different part of the city for awhile such as the Jordan Parkway, but will come back later in the year for another prostitution enforcement effort.
e-mail: preavy@desnews.com