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LAYTON -- It is a crime that you wouldn't imagine being a problem in a suburban community like this. Within the past six months, Layton police have made nearly 30 arrests for prostitution-related offenses.
The Davis County suburb has become somewhat of a hot spot for prostitution because of its location between Salt Lake City and Ogden, vice cops said.
"We have a lot of hotels in this city and it tends to draw some of that activity as well," Layton Police Sgt. Travis Lyman told KSL NewsRadio on Friday. "It's just close and convenient for people and it's just right in between two fairly large metropolitan areas."
The proximity of Hill Air Force Base is surprisingly not a big factor, said Lyman, noting that airmen are not the people they typically arrest for sexual solicitation. The prostitution that police encounter is mostly Internet-based, Lyman said. Prostitutes often attempt to work out of the hotels in Layton.
Most recently, Layton police investigated a case where a man is accused of acting as a pimp for two 14-year-old girls. The police department first realized there was a prostitution problem in Davis County in 2005.
"We had one particular incident where something was going on over at the Layton Hills Mall," Lyman said. "Somebody was actually trying to recruit girls to go to work. It kind of just opened our eyes to the fact that so much of this is going on."
Since then, police have cracked down on the practice. Arrests have climbed, but Lyman said it is not because there is more prostitution taking place in Davis County. "It's because we're probably getting a little better on the enforcement of that type of activity," he said.
E-mail: bwinslow@ksl.com
