by LE that is? Not me, very careful,... I think. But hadn't seen talk of it here. Any known outs if your nabbed, what's the process of getting out easy if you do? Bail bonds? Just wondering.

Guy’s busted…yes, admitting it…no, have been investigated…hell yes!

In all my years, I have never seen one guy admit in a public forum that his was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Remember if you do get arrested, they are going to try to make you feel that you have committed the most heinous crime ever. No good cop/bad cop, just quotes along the lines like “what is your wife/friends going to think”


Know your rights!
First, and most important, in an encounter with the police:
DO NOT physically resist or threaten the officer(s) in any way.  
DO NOT try to leave until an officer tells you that you are free to go.
DO NOT give the officer any information about any of your activities.
DO NOT consent to any search.
The bottom line:
IF YOU ARE NOT FREE TO GO, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST.  WHEN YOU ARE UNDER ARREST YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Don’t lie.  Don’t be a smart ass.  Don’t try to be friends with the officer.
Simply refuse to answer any of the officer's questions.  Each time he/she asks a question, respond with the question "Am I free to go?"  This will probably result in such frustration for the officer that they may arrest you anyway...but better to be arrested with little or no evidence, than to give the officer information they may use to file charges and for those charges to stick!
It’s all a game.  But the rules of the game (the Constitution of the United States) are in your favor.  You cannot be punished more severely, just because you refused to risk incriminating yourself during a police investigation (no matter what an officer says).
REMEMBER:
If you are not free to go, then you have the right to remain silent.
Know what to expect if stopped or visited by the police!
You will be asked for identification (if you are driving, you may be asked for your registration and insurance info, as well).  You are required to provide this information.  Then the “investigation” will start.  The conversation might go something like this:
Officer:  Do you have any ID on you?
You:  Yes sir.  (or ma’am)
Officer:  May I see it?
You:  Certainly Officer.  May I reach into my pocket to get it?
Officer: Yes…Is this your current address?
You: Yes sir.
Officer:  What are you doing out here tonight?
You:  Officer, am I free to go?
Officer:  Not yet.  What are you doing out here tonight?
You:  If I’m not free to go, then I’m going to exercise my right to remain silent.
The officer will then try everything he/she can think of to get you to start talking.  They’ll try to convince you that you’ll be in more trouble if you don’t cooperate.  They’ll try to convince you that you’re not under arrest, so there’s nothing wrong with cooperating.  They may yell at you, or play good cop/bad cop.  Most police officers are moderately skilled interrogators.  One thing is sure: they practice interrogation techniques a LOT more than you practice being interrogated.  So don’t try to outsmart them.  
Your refusal to cooperate will be very frustrating to the officer.  He/she wants to put a prostitution bust on their arrest stats…particularly if they are assigned to Van Buren or any other “high vice” area.  They will pull out all the stops to get you to tell them what they need to arrest you.  Below are some of the interrogation techniques they may try:
1)      Appeal to your innate desire to be honest and “come clean.”  They’ll tell you that they already know a crime has been committed (they may tell you that the other person is spilling their guts) and that if you simply tell the truth, they’ll let you off the hook, or that they’ll still have to arrest you but they’ll “put in a good word for you with the prosecutor or judge.”  This is complete crap.  Police officers do not influence judges.  They investigate crimes, and then provide testimony to a court regarding that investigation.
2)      Intimidate you.  The officer or officers will gang up on you.  Get in your face.  Surround you.  Tell you that you have no choice but to cooperate.  They may even yell at you, or knock you around a little.  Yelling at, and/or using ANY kind of physical force on a detainee who is not physically resisting, is unprofessional behavior and can get the officers into deep doo-doo.  Get at least one of their names and ID #s and report them to the Professional Standards Division of the department they work for!
3)      You may find yourself in a “good cop/bad cop” situation, where one officer will pretend to be your friend and give you advice about how to get out of this mess, while the other officer pretends to pressure the friendly officer to arrest you and get it over with.  This is just a combination of the first two techniques described above.  Sometimes a single cop will play both roles.  He/she will tell you that if you don't do what he tells you to do, that he won't be able to be such a nice guy and you will force him to arrest you.
4)      Threaten to embarrass you.  If you're married, have a girlfriend, kids, job, friends, etc. and it would be hard to explain why you were arrested, the police will use this to scare you into talking.  A police officer detained me once and then called my wife at 2:00 am to "verify my address," telling her that he had stopped me on Van Buren.  Of course, what he was really doing was trying to embarrass me into talking.
The main tool the cops use is interrogation technique #4 (threaten to embarrass)...If you've got six cops surrounding you and you think you're going to jail, and a wife is waiting at home who will eventually find out what you got arrested for, most people will panic and do anything they think will get them out of the mess. Unfortunately this will backfire on them and they will be prosecuted even more vigorously because of the info they will give the officers. Then, not only will they have to explain getting arrested, they'll also have to explain getting found guilty of the charges!


"Prostitution" means engaging in or agreeing or offering to engage in sexual conduct with another person under a fee arrangement with that person or any other person.
"Sexual conduct" means sexual contact, sexual intercourse, oral sexual contact or sadomasochistic abuse.
In order to arrest you, the police officer must establish that a reasonable person would believe a crime has been committed. Even if you DID make an offer for prostitution, unless the officer actually heard the conversation, then the only information the officer has, is that a person driving down the street, picked up another person who was walking down the street; or that a person was inside another person's home for a period of time; or maybe that there are many male visitors to a female's home; etc.   You may have gone to a hotel with someone, or maybe just pulled off on a side street and spent some time in your car.  You may even have gotten caught in the act of having sex with the other person. Having sex (even with strangers) is NOT illegal!
However, the police may suspect that you made (or accepted) an offer of sex for money, especially if any of these things occurred in a “known high-vice area” like Van Buren.  Detaining you at this point is already skating on the ragged edge of violating your rights.  Don’t stand for it!
When the police stop, detain, and interrogate people, without having any real knowledge that a crime has been committed, we get a little closer to being denied the basic freedom to conduct our lives as our conscience guides us.  Freedom is not just won in wars…the fight for freedom begins with each citizen and his or her daily response to government oppression.
If you engaged in an act of prostitution (as defined by the statute, above), then you DID break the law.  However, you are under NO obligation to admit to a law enforcement officer that you broke the law, or to cooperate with any investigation aimed at finding out if a law has been broken

I second what you said about being silent.  

If they had any evidence at all, they'd just arrest you.  They want you to incriminate yourself so they bully you.  I guarantee they'll bully your lady more than you (unless she's LE).

Sure I'll post my experience:  Nothing happened to me, nothing at all.  But a group of vice cops harrassed my lady and searched her car, and scared her pretty good dropping the P word a lot hoping she'd incriminate herself.  She actually told them I was her boyfriend and knew enough about me to pull it off even though she's way too pretty.  They got her license plate number and told her she's banned from Bloomington, which is bullshit because they can't ban her!

Word of advice, don't let your lady talk to the hotel front desk...ever.  Just give her your extension or just use cell phones.  The front desk called LE after she asked them about me.  This was in an area that receives a lot of tourists and businesspeople btw.  

That experience almost scared me right out of the hobby, but she's so pretty and nice that I had to see her again. It worked out though, she got off with a harsh warning and has seen me in a much safer residential location after that.  

Anyone visiting the Twin Cities? stay the hell away from the ExtendedStayAmerica in Bloomington.  That place will drain your soul.  They're especially harsh on providers who set up shop.

I guess guys who've been busted don't want to talk about it. I can't say I blame them. As a newbie I've tried to get some experienced guys to tell their stories with le. This is the first time I've seen anythig like it.

What I would really like, and I'm sure many would find it helpful, is a little information on what to look for when going to a meeting.
I know I personally wouldn't recognize a sting untill the cuffs were put on.

After a recent and silly run in with LE while on the east coast, I was reminded of how silly they can be when they really don't have anything. I was grabbed by a few officers who thought they were grabing the right guy, oops.  Nothing to do with the hobby, but it was a fun round of questioning.  I do agree that giving your id is probably in your best interest.  That night I was on foot, not in my car, and I had not done anything wrong, so when asked for my id I told them I wanted to know why, they just kept saying "Give me your id" I kept saying "Why" After about 10 rounds of this I said "Look if you don't tell me why you are requesting my id I'm going to turn around and walk away, if you have a legitimate issue here tell me what it is and we can work through this". His response, "Give me your ID".  So I turned around and walked away.  I was on the street, and honestly they had no reason to harass me.  I don't suggest this in all situations but here is an excerpt from the aclu link posted above...
2. You must show your driver's license and registration when stopped in a car. Otherwise, you don't have to answer any questions if you are detained or arrested, with one important exception. The police may ask for your name if you have been properly detained, and you can be arrested in some states for refusing to give it. If you reasonably fear that your name is incriminating, you can claim the right to remain silent, which may be a defense in case you are arrested anyway.

I want to make one important clarification and another small one to the "Know Your Rights Post".  

1.  If you are NOT free to go, that does not necessarily mean you are arrested.  If the LE has reasonable suspicion they can "detain" you for minimal questioning, a "Terry frisk" (to check for weapons), and can ask for ID.  This does NOT mean you are under arrest.  

To be under arrest they must have Probable Cause to arrest you.  If you are in your OWN home (not someone else's home) they must have EITHER Probable Cause and a search or arrest warrant OR Probable Cause and Exigent Circumstance.  

2.  If you are being detained don't be a smartass to the LE just politely say, "I am sorry but I would just like to assert my rights and not answer any questions."  Keep saying that if they ask you questions.  Asking "Am I free to leave now officer?" is important to ask but don't keep repeating so much the officer gets pissed and it makes things worse.  

3.  IF you are ARRESTED assert your right to COUNSEL IMMEADIATLY.  If you are not going to have legal representation (highly discouraged) then at least ASSERT your right to REMAIN SILENT.  In the latter case they cannot ask questions for a period of time.  But the questioning can resume.  You must ASSERT it though for this to take place.

In the case of asking for counsel they cannot talk to you until your representation has arrived.  They can begin conversation with you if you initiate it though.  

3.  Finally as the above person said NEVER CONSENT to a SEARCH.

Another is to stay away from the car thing. Providers walking the street? I think I'll invest a few more $$'s. It is true that LE can be silly. Remember they are trying to entrap you. In order to do this they have to get you to talk "explicitly" about the services and money. IF you are visiting a provider that does not screen well, be worried. If the provider asks pointed specific questions about what you expect, be worried. Remeber-TER reviews give us what we need to know. Yes-I was busted back in my early twenties. Pretty stupid too. Girl walks up to my car (streetwalker=red flag). Looks too good to be walking the streets (Red Flag). Asks me how much I got and what do I expect in return (Red Flag). Once I got to a point where we were going to talk money and specifics, then I asked her if she was LE. She said yes. I said by by. I went home and changed my shorts. Also, trust your intuition. If it smells like a duck, it probably is.

I have had a couple of problems with LE.  Both times because they had my phone number from the provider's cell phone.  In each case the officer called my cell and said they had some questions for me regarding an investigation and could I come down to the police station (once Woodbury and once St. Paul).  I told him I was too busy.  He then said that he could have me brought in for questioning because he could find out who I was from my number.  I said fine.  You see I have a "go phone" purchased with cash and all recharge minutes purchased with cash.  This means he couldn't get my name.  My point is don't ever use your "real" cell phone for the hobby.

I've been using this method of Go-Phones for years, and before that, I'd use contract phones with ficticous into and I'd just pay the big deposit so they'd turn it on... I learned somethings from drug dealers and illegals aliens early in my life and figured that if they seem to be able to get away with this stuff year after year, why can I?  
 I will add that I change up my pre-paids often, just so I can't be "trianglulated" over time by my # showig up on too many busted provider's phones....

It was about a year ago that I saw a public memo from MPD, and it was about a year old then. They were going to go after tougher prosecutions for prostitution. It was geared towards the street action, but who know if they would use it towards “our line of entertainment”

The police will book the person into jail on a probable cause gross misdemeanor prostitution charge, rather than “tagging” them or issuing a citation for a misdemeanor (the maximum penalty for a gross misdemeanor is: 1 year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine; the maximum penalty for a misdemeanor is: 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine). Absent any mitigating or aggravating circumstances, the city attorney’s office will seek a guilty plea to a gross misdemeanor prostitution charge. If the defendant qualifies and voluntarily participates in a diversion program, the city attorney’s office will agree that the court could stay adjudication of that guilty plea for two years on the condition that the defendant commits no (same or similar) offences and the defendant completes the diversion program.

Glad I asked the question, lots of good info. Thanks all!

I'm busting a gut. What kind of a "Diversion" program do you use to correct our sinful ways?
Do they make you watch 100 rerun episodes of "Maude?" That would do it for me....

There is a John school here in the twin cities and it is usually old ex prostitutes that run it, and they happen to look like Maude LOL. But thanks for that visual, now I will not be able to get hard for a month! HAHA