Police working to combat prostitution in Homewood

The Homewood Police Department has recently conducted multiple operations geared toward combating prostitution and human trafficking in the city, according to a police department press release on July 5.

HPD’s vice narcotics unit has detained five female suspects and remanded one female juvenile to the Department of Human Resources during operations in the last two weeks, according to police. The five non-juvenile suspects were later released. All of the suspects have been linked to backpage.com, according to police. Backpage.com is a website where individuals will seek out or advertise online prostitution.

The vice narcotics unit is working to combat the rise of online prostitution, which oftentimes has meeting places set up in local hotels.