San Antonio, Texas \u2014 SAN ANTONIO – Cold temperatures did not stop alleged “Johns” from showing up along Austin Highway this week, where Bexar County deputies were running a sting operation called \u201cPolice Navidad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office says the corridor has become a growing source of complaints involving prostitution, gangs, and theft.<\/p>\n
Deputies set up undercover operations during the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re out in broad daylight right now. Our undercovers are out in plain view, and what we\u2019re doing, quite frankly, is we\u2019re waiting for the lunch hour to hit. That\u2019s the prime working hours for this sort of activity,\u201d Sheriff Javier Salazar said.<\/p>\n
From a nearby command center, deputies monitored who approached the undercover officers and what offers were made. One sergeant even joked about holding wedding rings for undercover female deputies.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the deputies there is actually the husband of one of the undercovers, and he showed me, he pulled out and jokingly showed me, he’s got a necklace on, and he\u2019s got all of their wedding rings on his necklace. They all took their wedding rings off and handed them to him for safekeeping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Salazar says the goal is not just arrests but protecting women caught in dangerous cycles of exploitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not Pretty Woman in these cases. Some of these women are at the very least trying to feed an addiction, and if you are victimizing somebody like that, you are capitalizing on that addiction. You are taking advantage of a person who may not be in their right mind,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
He added that some women in the area are being trafficked, forced into prostitution, and unable to leave. During the operation, one man who tried to walk away and board a VIA bus was arrested moments later.<\/p>\n
The sheriff described the Austin Highway corridor as an area where upscale neighborhoods sit next to spots that draw criminal activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some areas that are a little seedy, and then just a few blocks over, million-dollar homes. We want to keep every neighborhood safe and sound. Kids walking around to school on a daily basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the ride-along, deputies made additional arrests, including suspects in a mail theft case and a man wanted on a felony warrant. Salazar said that it is common in these stings.<\/p>\n
In July, Operation Unlucky Strike led to 30 arrests. Last week, Operation Street Sweep resulted in 11 more arrests tied to solicitation and related crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of those folks are US citizens, out probably in their mind pursuing just having a good time, not hurting anybody. But again, what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re helping to feed this industry of human trafficking,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that success is measured not by arrest numbers but by reducing criminal activity in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody\u2019s out here conducting criminal activity, our job is to catch them and take them to jail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office hopes the visibility of these operations deters future crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sheriff\u2019s office hopes that by people seeing that they\u2019re out on the streets on operations like this one, they will think twice before they head out and try to commit a crime,\u201d Yami Virgin reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio, Texas \u2014 SAN ANTONIO – Cold temperatures did not stop alleged “Johns” from showing up along…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-425828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115665477776946893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}