Detective shines light on modern-day prostitution in true crime book
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective and author Chris Baughman will sign his book, “Off the Street,” from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at Barnes & Noble — located at 5130 E. Broadway Blvd. in Tuscon, Ariz.
“Off the Street” chronicles the first case of Metro’s Pandering Investigation Team, a specialized vice squad that arrests and helps to convict high-power pimps who manipulate women into prostitution as a modern-day form of human trafficking.
Prostitution in America has gotten more sophisticated, like that of the mob only a few decades ago, causing PIT to use investigation techniques, including that of the IRS, to match. In the end, they rob the pimps of the mansions, luxury cars and posh lifestyles they receive on the backs of the women they keep.
Since PIT’s first case, it has seen a success rate of 99 percent and has rescued women from across the nation and returned them to their families.
Baughman, a first-time author, moved to Las Vegas at age 9, and during the next 10 years experienced life in the rougher sections of town. Never jaded, Baughman followed his instincts for justice – and his father’s encouragement – and joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at age 24.
While many refused to go back, Baughman has spent most of his 11 years as a cop working the neighborhoods of his youth – in the patrol officer setting for four years, as an investigator with the Gangs Unit, as a Vice detective and now as a member of PIT.