Dallas Police arrested 23 people last November during a sting operation for solicitation of prostitution, a state jail felony, according to an email from a DPD spokesperson.
“As part of that ongoing investigation, the Dallas Police Department’s Special Investigation Division ran an operation targeting online sex trafficking in the city of Dallas, Collin County,” the email states.
The arrest information was released Wednesday.
“The investigation was ongoing with cases filed with Collin County last week,” said Kristin Lowman, Dallas Police representative.
Police began an investigation into the short-term rental property after a neighbor filed a police report after being concerned the property was being used for prostitution, police said.
Police received a tip from a resident in Northwest Dallas about suspicious activity coming from the home in his neighborhood near LBJ Freeway and Marsh Lane.
Along with multiple arrests, police also found and seized three firearms and more than $6,000 in cash.
The arrested suspects range from 27 to 70 years of age, and all appear to be men.
Short-term rental properties are increasingly being used by criminals to commit acts of crime, according to police.
Sergeant Warren Mitchell of the Dallas Police Department released a statement on criminals’ use of short-term rental properties being used for sex trafficking.
“The Dallas Police Special Investigations Division has seen the newer tactic of using short-term rentals by sex trafficking organizations to conduct business. These organizations use the locations to attempt to evade law enforcement more effectively than by staying in one static location. Using short-term rentals allows the organizations to move their operations more frequently and to cross jurisdictional lines to avoid raising suspicion from people who live around the short-term rental, as well as local law enforcement. While this tactic may be perceived to be effective, it does not hinder the DPD Special Investigations Division from conducting investigations into sex trafficking within the City of Dallas or surrounding areas with a nexus to the City of Dallas. As always, if you see something suspicious or out of the ordinary in your neighborhood, notify local law enforcement.”
Last year in December, the Dallas City Plan Commission formally recommended that the city outright prohibit short-term rentals in single-family residential neighborhoods.
The commission supported the prohibition in a 9-4 last year, which will likely impact at least 2,000 properties throughout the city.
The incident occurred in Dallas City Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis’s District 13.
In 2022 offenses related to sex trafficking spiked by 8% compared to 2021. The latest sting unfolded against the backdrop of the rise of violent crime in the first weeks of the new year.