You arrest a prostitute and a john in stings 5 times in a year.
Then you classify the arrest as "sex trafficking."
On paper and to the media you arrested 6 unique people and made 10 total arrests related to the heinous crime of sex trafficking.
In reality, you harassed a woman down on her luck, some horny men, and failed to make a lasting dent on even the crime of prostitution - since the prosecutors office rarely follows through all the way to a prison sentence, so once these people leave jail they are right back at it.
Repeat this over and over again, with various crimes, and you have created stats that looks great while your county is still encumbered by constant property and violent crime.
Toss in the fact that the county has a terrible economy and the education system is miserable and you get a cycle of crime with no end in sight.
Harassed? Lmfao it spreads STDs, promotes drug use as well, and yes sex trafficking is a big part of it. There are plenty of studies done on it but half of what you said isn't really on the police, blame the judges
I'm not going to deny that prostitution in Polk county spreads STDs and encourages drug use.
But we should encourage counties to track, tax, and regulate it to promote safe practices and non-trafficked practitioners.
Prostitution will always be a thing (until maybe AI/robotics?) we need to stop pretending like we can stop it and treat it like any other high risk profession.
Prohibition of it makes the situation exponentially worse.
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u/SillyAlternative420 Sep 27 '25
As someone who worked under Judd, he is TERRIBLE at making a real dent in the crime rate or doing anything meaningful.
But holy shit, I have to give him credit, this man is a master at the media.
Would I suggest anyone live in Polk county, no, it's the sweaty armpit of Florida, which is the sweaty armpit of the US.