Police, hotels talk about crackdown on prostitution – Andover Townsman

ANDOVER Local hotels and the Andover Police Department are working together to crack down on prostitution and human trafficking, according to police Chief Patrick Keefe.

Andover detectives, along with FBI agents and a representative of the state police, met with hotel managers and employees at the Residence Inn on Tuesday to talk about how to recognize the signs of illegal activity. Andover has eight hotels and most of them have been affected by crimes, including prostitution, police Lt. Edward Guy said.

All of the local hotels were represented at the meeting, he said. Hotel managers from Nashua, New Hampshire, Methuen and Tewksbury also attended.

When a hotel employee sees activity that indicates the likelihood of prostitution a customer who insists on paying in cash, different men visiting a room at frequent intervals or a guest who spends little time in the quarters she rented he or she should call the police, he said.

Contact us so we can initiate an investigation, Guy said. Hotel workers should not try to take the situation into their own hands, he cautioned.

We know that prostitution is not a victimless crime, Keefe said. This is an issue of human suffering and misery. We know that the women being advertised on Internet classifieds websites are rarely, if ever, individual people. In nearly all cases, there is someone behind the scenes, profiting from these crimes.

Recently, there have been confirmed cases of human trafficking in Andover hotels, Keefe said.The strong partnership between the Andover police and the hotel industry has resulted in arrests for human trafficking, he said.

Several sting operations targeting customers of prostitutes have produced numerous arrests, he added.

Andover is near the intersections of two major highways, Interstates 93 and 495, and has a large hospitality industry, the chief noted.

Going forward, the Andover Police Department will continue planning future operations while working with the local hotels in order to combat human trafficking and sex crime, said Detective Sgt. Mark Higginbottom. Weplan to make these types of meetings a recurring event.

Jeanne Roche, director of sales for the Residence Inn, said the meeting provided the hotels with best practices to avoid human and child trafficking.

Roche said local hotels are eager to work with law enforcement in routing out illegal activity on their premises.

Were happy to help them, she said. We are grateful for the partnership.

Guy pointed out that the vast majority of guests staying in Andover hotels are families or people traveling on legitimate business.

They are expecting theyre going to be in a safe place, he said.

Like Keefe, Guy said the people who market their bodies are victims. Many, he noted, are drug addicts.

We try to get them the assistance they need, he said.

Guy said prostitution is not an everyday occurrence in Andover, but it probably happens more frequently than we care to admit.

The hotels, Guy said, have been very cooperative with the Police Department whenever prostitution is reported.

Theyve been fantastic, he said.

Guy said he and other police officers are eager to arrest the pimps, mostly men, who sell the services of prostitutes.

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Police, hotels talk about crackdown on prostitution - Andover Townsman