According to 2008-2009 crime statistics released earlier this week by the Seattle Police Department burglaries, robberies and assaults are on the rise in Seattle and we apparently have a gang "pandemic" on our hands. So what's SPD spending its time doing? Busting prostitutes.

After conducting two prostitution stings in the International District and an armed raid on an alleged brothel in Eastlake in the last two weeks, SPD is back at it again, arresting six women and four men in five prostitution stings around the city.

On May 30, undercover officers posing as johns drove up and down Aurora Avenue looking for women working the streets. Officers negotiated for sex with two different 42-year-old women—one in the 4200 block of Aurora, the other on 125th—arrested them and then released them from the scene.

The next evening, officers were out again near 6th and Thomas, where they arrested a 39-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl for prostitution*.

Then, on June 1st, members of SPD's elite Anti-Crime Team set up a sting Ellis Avenue South and East Marginal Way S because of, a police report says, a "visible increase in prostitution along the Rainier...corridor." Police arrested two men, 30 and 42, during the operation.

That evening, undercover members of SPD's elite Anti-Crime Team also set up a sting in Columbia City—using a "female decoy" and two undercover officers posing as johns—arresting three women and two men. South Precinct Lieutenant Eric Sano sent out an email to community members, proudly proclaiming the success of the operation:

Last night, my Anti-Crime Team did a Prostitution Sting in the South Precinct along the Rainier Corridor. We used an undercover female officer and arrested 3 men who attempted to patronize her. Then, we placed two of our male patrol officers in plain clothes and sent them out to Columbia City where they arrested two women for prostitution. So, in all, we made 5 arrests.

On a lighter note, during the operation, one of my regular community contacts called me and stated there was a lot of prostitution activity in Columbia City...and then he proceeded to describe my undercover cars!

Seattle Police Department spokesman Sean Whitcomb says “there is no department wide [emphasis] on prostitution."

But that really doesn't seem to be the case.

*For the record, I'm not knocking SPD for attempting to get a 17-year-old girl out of prostitution.