it seems there have been a lot of high-profile cases surfacing lately involving online prostitution. we wanted to know if police are seeing a rise in online prostitution, and if they're worried about it spreading further ....to social sites like facebook. jeff maher spent the day investigating. he's live in the newsroom with what he found. jeff. the commander of a-p-d's special investigations division tells me he has seen an increase in prostitution over the past year -- bothn the street, and online. he says the rough economy is likely the cause. in just the first six-months of this year, albuquerque police arrested several hundred pimps, johns, and prostitutes. the numbers of arrests, and cases, continue to climb. "there's always people out there to arrest, unfortunately, that's the sad reality" a-p-d commander doug west says undercover officers are constantly scouring adult advertisement ads on websites like craigslist and backpage-dot com. he says because so many suspicious massage parlor and body rub ads are popping up, officers are using a list to keep track of them all. "the amount of trouble that you can get in for patronizing a prostitute, it can destroy your life" west says so far, he has not seen any prostitution cases connected to social media such as twitter, myspace, and facebook. but he says he wouldn't be surprised if it eventually happens. making arrests for online prostitution is different than the old style of hitting the streets catching johns red-handed. west says officers need to be a bit more creative with their undercover work. "i don't think old style prostitution will ever be replaced as far as girls walking the street, the sad part is, that's always going to be there, but then you also have online prostitution which i think is always going to continue to grow" west says with online prostitution, pimps control sites and ads, which turn it into a criminal enterprise'. in that case, the charges are more severe, and police are authorized to seize funds
