The RPD announced “seven prostitution and drug-related arrests this morning in the Fairmont (sic) and Jefferson Davis neighborhoods of Richmond” sparked by citizen complaints. [via]

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The crime map shows what must’ve been a sweep for prostitution on May 16th in Sector 113, with many of the arrests coming in the area designated as a Prostitution Free Zone (and so carrying stiffer penalties).

The regular meeting of the Public Safety Committee of City Council will be moved to the Renaissance Conference Center (107 West Broad Street) on Monday, 3/17 @ 3PM. On the agenda for the meeting are: 1) the need for greater police presence along Broad Street, 2) the need to remove prostitutes, panhandlers, and drug dealers from the area, and 3) the need to improve trash pick-up and interrupted street lighting. This meeting is open to the public; anyone who has an interest in effective and on-going downtown Richmond revitalization is encouraged to attend. [via]

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Fairmount’s ongoing problems with prostitution and drugs makes the news. So everybody knows that this is going on, now what? More signs? … Another later story also on nbc12 brings to light a spate of robberies last night in Brauers at Brauers Lane and Rogers Street and nearby on North 23rd Street. UPDATE: Arrests made in Fairmount robberies.

“This sign is in an area designated as a Prostitution Free Zone. [...] It shall be unlawful for any person who has been restricted by court order to thereafter enter or be upon property designated a Prostitution Free Zone.”

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New RVA satire blog Tobacco Avenue points out that With crime down, local prostitutes feel safer on city streets. From the post:

A rolled wad of bills - fives, tens maybe - emerge from the dark interior along with the aroma of Northern Lights-brand marijuana, the heavy thump of bass rattling the partially-rusted trunk. He whispers something to LaTawnya; she nods her head and enters the passenger seat, gently winking at a Tobacco Avenue reporter as they drift into the night, seemingly disappearing into the grandly illuminated Richmond skyline.

And with that, LaTawnya was off to her next gig - and likely safe one, at that.

The RTD profiles the Intensive Treatment Unit, a new state-funded program run by the Virginia Department of Corrections aimed at assisting women whose lives have been shattered due to drugs, violence, prostitution, abuse, etc.

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In a long article, the RTD is reporting that the RPD has concluded that East End robbery suspect Curtis Blount, fatally shot Sept. 20 after being cornered in an alley by police, killed himself with his own gun, according to a nearly completed police internal affairs investigation.

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Richmond police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a decomposed corpse of a woman discovered Monday in an abandoned house in the 800 block of North 22nd Street. [via]

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