Flatfoot Floozies

As she loitered on a Washington, D.C., sidewalk one recent night, a pretty blonde in yellow bellbottoms seemed ready for business. A light blue Dodge slowed down; its driver beckoned: "You want to go for a ride?"

"No," said the girl.

"Come on," said the driver. "I've got money."

"For what?"

When he named a specific act and a price, Sharon Mann whipped out badge No. 3427 and told the stunned sport: "I am a police officer. You are under arrest for soliciting for prostitution." An unmarked patrol car cut off the Dodge's escape route; other officers convoyed the driver to the stationhouse. It was the 20th arrest in seven weeks for Sharon Mann, 23, a trained social worker who now packs a .38 revolver in her new role as an undercover flatfoot floozy.

Trees and Thieves. Like many cities, Washington is toiling to stamp out the world's oldest profession. One reason is that prostitutes' customers, including some of the capital's hordes of visitors, are easy prey to mugging as an unexpected part of their transaction. One common police technique involves male plainclothesmen, who arrest girls who solicit them. For the past three months, Washington has been reversing the process by using three female decoys to catch the male customers.

The new technique has upset civil libertarians, to say nothing of pimps, prostitutes and customers. Legal critics scent illegal entrapment. However, the policewomen have refined their techniques to avoid any overt welcome save their dress and location, and seventeen patrons have been convicted under a statute that makes solicitors liable for a $250 fine or 90 days in jail or both.

"If you chop down the apple tree you won't have any apple thieves," says Vice Squad Detective James M. Harrigan. Judge Charles W. Halleck made a more practical observation several weeks ago. He ordered that one convicted suburbanite's $148 fine be used to pay rehabilitation expenses for a twice-convicted prostitute who needed tuition for a keypunch operator's course. Said Halleck: "If men find out that they will have to pay to send these ladies of the evening to school, they might quit going out there."

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