DAYTONA BEACH -- Dressed in a skimpy outfit, policewoman Dawn Harris swings with one arm wrapped around a street sign on Ridgewood Avenue; she waves at men who pass by and ogle her bare stomach, hoping they'll pull over.
Harris has been walking up and down Ridgewood for one week, working her magic in an attempt to arrest johns - the men who solicit prostitutes.
Her goal is a simple, but difficult one: ridding Ridgewood of its prostitutes and their clientele.
"We've started hitting it hard," the veteran cop says in her raspy voice. "Prostitution will just not go away."
For the first time in the six years he's been at the helm, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood recently launched one full week of prostitution stings aimed at netting the men and women who consistently appear on the busy avenue buying and selling flesh.
"It's definitely making a difference," Chitwood said. "It makes prostitutes and johns know (that) we're gonna put you out of business."
In the past, prostitution stings have been planned for weekends, or whenever special events rolled into the city. But the chief says the one-week operations will become more frequent.
Regardless of how often the stings are carried out, eradicating prostitution is a tall order, said Capt. Jim Newcomb, whose district includes the Ridgewood corridor.
With a core group of 10 to 12 regular prostitutes on Ridgewood, Newcomb said officers make arrests, but the same women are back at it again three or four days later when they're sprung from the Volusia County Branch Jail.
"They come right back out," Newcomb said. "It's an uphill battle."
Police, however, have not seen too many of the johns as repeat customers, Newcomb said.
Harris, the undercover cop, knows that all too well. She sees so many of the same women strutting along Ridgewood that she calls them "my girls."
She knows all the women by their first names or nicknames, such as Sandra Lynn Parker, who goes by the moniker "Christmas," or Tracie Marie Whipper, who calls herself "Squirrel."
Many of the women -- such as Parker and Whipper, who are both in their 40s -- end up serving time in prison after their third conviction, Harris and Daytona Beach police victim advocate Sophie Vessa said. But prison to these women is nothing more than an extended vacation, Vessa said.
"It's just a place for them to clean up and get three meals a day," Vessa said recently.
Vessa, who has worked with many prostitutes, said one of the main hurdles facing these women is the lack of a facility that specializes in helping streetwalkers.
"They just throw them in a drug treatment program and that's only a symptom of a much bigger problem," Vessa said. "Most, if not all of these women, have deep issues that go way back."
One thing is certain, Harris says, walking the streets is risky business.
"I've been grabbed a few times, my breasts and my groin," Harris said. "Everyone wants something for free."
City Commissioner Pam Woods is hopeful that the one-week stings will put a dent in the problem that has long dogged Daytona Beach.
"There are a lot of problems (on Ridgewood)," she said. "To go out and do this so thoroughly is something I support completely."
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