Excerpt from a Letter sent to the Record
This is an excerpt from a Letter I just sent to the Record. Will they publish it?
The “Crackdown on prostitution” article read like it was written by-and-for Sgt. Pete Richards. None of the hard questions seemed to be asked or answered – because Richards wanted to focus on the success of arresting nine “Johns” – and not their failure to control "crack".
A few questions for Sgt. Richards:
Sgt. Richards; you said “about 15 women work as prostitutes (some) near a crack house.” . . . Having said that, you must know where the crackhouse(s) are . . . So when will you be report a “Crackdown on Crackhouses” – after all, you know where they are?
Sgt. Richards; you said . . . “All the (15) women have crack cocaine addictions and have sex to support their expensive habits” . . . Having said that, has the department considered sending them to “Crack School.” . . . Wouldn’t that also curb prostitution, and crack dependence, in Kitchener.
Sgt. Richards; you said . . . “As long as there is crack, there will be prostitution” . . . I think the reads would like to ask “Okay, so what’s being done about crack then? Arresting nine guys for November’s John School is good PR, but what about solving what you say is the source of the problem – “crack.”
Sgt. Richards; you said . . . “ you watched a woman have sex in a car, leave to smoke crack and return to the street to earn more money (and) in some cases, a woman can repeat the pattern up to 15 times a day” . . . The natural question is; Did any of these observations result in the arrest of a crack dealer? Reads might think frightening the guys why patronize Kitchener’s 15 prostitutes looks more like PR that good solid police work. What is being done about what the department has identified as the root-source, “Crack Houses in Kitchener?”
Personally, I think Sgt. Pete Richards controlled the article all the way. He throw us a copy-bone about guys who can do the nasty in 35 seconds, he made it sound like the police are on top of things, and he got in his “John School” PR stuff to keep his carrier riding high.
More and more articles are titillating police department PR fluff. Papers, like the Reporter, should dig deeper and ask harder questions – like “why” – if they expect their “news” to remain relevant.