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Neighborhood Report

Prostitutes find they have formidable foes

When activity recently reappeared, neighbors got police on the case.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published September 29, 2006

Greg Barnhill got the hint when he found discarded condom wrappers in his yard. Driving home late one night, Sherry Simons spotted six prostitutes within a few blocks.

Prostitution is back in Seminole Heights. And because of that, so is the hooker patrol.

Living in a neighborhood bisected by Nebraska Avenue, a street long known for prostitution, Seminole Heights residents drew media attention in recent years for uniting against the nocturnal streetwalkers.

Neighborhood associations for Old Seminole Heights and Southeast Seminole Heights organized car patrols to prowl Nebraska at night, pointing flashlights and video cameras at prostitutes and their johns.

Their efforts paid off. Gradually residents and police noticed a significant reduction in prostitution along the patrolled portion of Nebraska, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the Hillsborough River.

By late spring, the prostitutes mostly had disappeared, Simons said. Tampa police Maj. Robert Guidara said prostitution reports in District Two, which includes Southeast Seminole Heights, dropped 72 percent.

So the neighborhood patrols stopped, and the police concentrated their efforts elsewhere.

Then about two or three months ago, Simons started seeing them again on Nebraska. "My daughter and I drove home one night from a play and we noticed about six," she said. Other telltale signs were appearing in the alleys just off Nebraska - discarded condoms and condom wrappers.

When Barnhill, who lives three blocks off Nebraska, recently found condom wrappers in his yard, neighbors began buzzing. "We're starting to hear it at potluck (dinners) or in passing, or somebody sends an e-mail," he said.

Three weeks ago, Barnhill mustered volunteers for a new vehicle patrol for the Old Seminole Heights portion of Nebraska, between Hillsborough Avenue and the river.

Simons did the same for the Southeast Seminole Heights stretch of Nebraska, south of Hillsborough to Martin Luther King.

The neighborhood watch groups have reopened their well-established channels with Tampa police, which are revisiting the area.

The department's Street Anti-Crime squad made 13 prostitution arrests along Nebraska in the past three weeks, Sgt. Jon Gamson said.

"It's like anything else that requires maintenance," he said. "Right now we're at a heightened level of enforcement to make sure we don't return to the previous levels of activity."

At its worst, Simons recalls, the neighborhood patrols would spot about a dozen prostitutes between Martin Luther King and the river. Barnhill would sometimes catch prostitutes and their johns in the act in his driveway.

He's confident that with the neighborhood's efforts, the bad old days won't come back.

"People are appreciative of the fact that (prostitutes) are no longer out there with the frequency of the past, and if they don't get out there again, it can get out of control."

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 08:15:51]