Kinney Heights Neighborhood Up in Arms Over Prostitution Invasion

Category: Crime Reports
Published on Thursday, 18 December 2014 16:19
Written by D.V. Lawrence
With the growing use of community online groups like Facebook or Nextdoor, neighborhoods have a new tool for fighting crime.  Prior to these options people might have shared concerns with their close neighbors but these internet “gathering” places allow for a greater variety of people in a wider radius of a community to alert and weigh in with each other about local issues such as lost or found dogs, a rash of burglaries or shared video of suspicious people “hanging around.”

Recently the Kinney Heights (north of Adams and west of Western) FB FB page was lit up with a rousing discussion of the prostitution business growing along Western.  Prostitutes engage in flagrant business in parked cars along the streets of beautifully restored craftsman houses and neighbors are starting to organize.  Kudo’s went out to Senior Lead officer Tracy Banuelos, who was spotted by several neighbors patrolling and rousing out prostitutes in the wee morning hours. But there is some frustration with a perceived lack of responsiveness by CD10 where a local deputy told the community a year ago the “FBI was on it" because of a suspicion that human trafficking was involved.  Yet prostitution continues and grows.  Some neighbors expressed frustration at the lack of police involvement while others expressed concern that the police did not have enough resources to manage the stings involved in shutting the business down.  UNNC President Jeff Camp has weighed in offering to organize the community with local police and CD 10.  TNN will update as the issue is addressed.