Prostitute Defends Profession

Twenty-one people charged with prostitution are taken off the streets.  Newschannel 9 talked to police about the sting and talked to a women who admits she's part of the profession.  Police say it's a growing concern among much of the community, prostitutes selling themselves on the streets in front of homes and businesses.

But we talked to one women who says a few of the new girls are giving the whole profession a bad name, and as long as you work away from the kids, you're not hurting anyone.

A women who our cameras caught walking the street on S. Willow this afternoon, admits to us she's been a prostitute for 15 years.  She says, "It's the oldest profession in the Bible, it's my body, this is mine, it's not man made."

She identifies herself only as Sheila.  She says she was working here Friday night, but when she heard about the prostitution sting, she ran... and says police have bigger problems to patrol.  "I wish to hell they would chase the murderers, the people that are raping small children, the people that are running into houses with guns."

But Chattanooga Police say selling yourself is a crime too, which is why they busted 21 people in the Highland Park area, 19 women and two men dressed as women, all charged with prostitution within one and a half miles of a school, all familiar faces.

Chattanooga Police Spokesperson Kim Noorbergen says, "They keep getting arrested, we putting them in jail, they keep getting arrested, but the thing is this is not a violent crime, it's a victimless crime."

Which is why police say it's hard to keep these people, and the prostitution they bring with them, off the streets.  But Sheila says working the streets is okay, as long as it's not done in front of kids.  "If you choose to prostitute and you do it properly and you're not harming anyone, I don't see how it could be a crime."

But police and many in the community disagree, while Sheila says it's just another way to make the big bucks.  "A good day's worth, 400 or 500, sometimes more."

Money for sex, a proposition this prostitute says should be legal, while police say it needs to be patrolled even more.  Sheila also admitted that 98 percent of the prostitutes she knows use the money they make for drugs.  She told us she's 55 years old and has raised 4 kids. 

Police tell us this was a very successful sting, and they hope to do another sometime soon.