An off-duty local officer was detained by Dallas police and given citations over the weekend.
Officer Walter Carter of the Garland Police Department was cited early Saturday for possession of an opened alcoholic beverage in a vehicle and manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution as a buyer, according to The Dallas Morning News.
In Dallas, manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution can be cited if a person “loiters in a public place in a manner, and under circumstances manifesting the purpose of inducing, enticing, soliciting, or procuring another to commit an act of prostitution.”
Police reported that Carter said he drove around to look at girls wearing miniskirts after he was pulled over around 1:40 a.m. near the intersection of Southwell Road and Shady Trail. A woman in a pink dress and high heels was seated in the passenger seat of Carter’s car, according to the police report. The unidentified woman told police she was not a prostitute and referred to Carter as her friend. She claimed she had called him to give her a ride from a nearby Denny’s, but when asked for the phone number she had called, she could not provide it.
As officers detained Carter, they reportedly saw his police badge and requested a supervisor. Carter had a gun and a half-opened can of beer in his truck. He initially faced a charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon, but a Dallas police jail sergeant instructed officers not to arrest Carter “if it wasn’t a DWI,” according to The Dallas Morning News.
Carter was not jailed and only cited due to a magistrate judge refusing to “accept” the charges. Garland police spokesman Richard Maldonado told The Dallas Morning News that the investigation is internal and Carter remains on active duty, but his status could change during the investigation.
The incident occurred in Omar Narvaez’s District 6, an area known as a prostitution hotspot, as recently reported by The Dallas Express.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, every single reported criminal offense related to prostitution that occurred in December 2022 took place in District 6, with the exception of two in City Councilman Paul Ridley’s District 14. A total of 29 such offenses were reported last month.