Cook County: Craigslist's 'erotic' section must go

Craigslist's San Francisco headquarters

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET News)

Updated at 1:55 p.m. PST to include quotes from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who was interviewed by CNET News.

Updated at 12:13 p.m. PST to include demands made in civil complaint filed by Cook County sheriff.

Updated at 12:13 p.m. PST to include comments from Craigslist.

The sheriff of Illinois' Cook County, which includes Chicago, filed suit in federal court Thursday against Craigslist, alleging that the Web's largest classifieds publication is "facilitating prostitution."

Sheriff Tom Dart has asked the court to force Craigslist to remove the Web publication's erotic section. Cook County also wants $100,000 in compensation for the man hours the county has had to pay police to investigate alleged criminal services being advertised on the site.

In an interview with CNET News following a press conference, Dart made clear that he isn't blaming Craigslist for prostitution in his county and said Craigslist is great for renting rooms or selling cars and hundreds of other legal uses.

But he said all the statistics shows Craigslist is the country's biggest marketing tool for the illegal sex trade and also makes it harder for law authorities to catch bad guys.

"I've said all along that I'm not blaming them for prostitution," Dart said. "What I am blaming them for is that one part of their site is being horribly misused. Either shut that part of the site down or put some real monitoring in place."

Craigslist, the Web's biggest publication of classified advertisements, promised in November to begin cracking down on ads for prostitution after coming under fire by several state attorneys general.

"Misuse of Craigslist to facilitate criminal activity is unacceptable, and we continue to work diligently to prevent it," said Susan MacTavish Best, a Craigslist spokeswoman. "Misuse of the site is exceptionally rare compared to how much the site is used for legal purposes. Regardless, any misuse of the site is not tolerated on Craigslist.

"Craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for those intent on committing crimes since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves," Best continued. "On a daily basis, we are being of direct assistance to police departments and federal authorities nationwide."

Best said that Craigslist managers have yet to receive a copy of the complaint issued by the Cook County Sheriff's Office.

As for its potential defense in the sheriff's civil case, Craigslist can claim to be immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. "

Dart, who is sheriff of one of the most populous counties in the United States with about 5.3 million residents, said he has asked for help from Craigslist and done everything possible to negotiate with managers there. He said he held off filing suit to see whether the deal between the state attorney general would have any impact on the problem.

"Near as we can tell they have a total of about 24 employees," Dart said. "They freely admit that their policing and monitoring is all done by the participants. As I said, we can all act like we're idiots here but that gets old after a while. Are you trying to tell me that the people going to a prostitution site are going to be so horribly offended that they're going to register a complaint? No they're not.

"Just to prove my point we put our own ads on Craigslist," Dart said. "One of them read '15-year-old looking for sex,' and it got three hits including one from a convicted sex offender. We put up '14-year old looking for sex.' Nobody filed any complaints and that one was left up. So its clear there's no policing going on. Craigslist, part of your site is being misued. Work with me to rectify it. Monitor it and I'll go away."

CNET's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report

[sodapop2k9]

Aparently the sheriff in Cook County is insane. You can't sue a classified listing for allowing unlawful adds in its index any more you can sue a sheriff for allowing unlawful people within his county.

[scdecade]

This is the United States. You can sue anyone for anything.

[Dalkorian]

Maybe you two are onto an idea - what if Craigslist countersued the Sheriff for not combating prostitution. I mean it's supposed to be illegal, yet people are doing it anyway. They are currently using Craigslist, but they could be using street corners or simple paper flyers stapled to phone poles. If the Sheriff did his job and stopped these prostitutes then Craigslist wouldn't have this problem to begin with!

See what happens when we allow the ridiculous to flourish?

[stefanvolos]

The simple solution is to finally legalize prostitution in all 50 states and subject it to government taxation and regulation. It would be a quick way to raise local revenues, create jobs, stem foreclosures, and turn around the economy.

[GardenLobster]

Not to mention with proper regulation regardin public health, it would prevent the spread of disease. However, it isn't likely to happen soon and would still probably go state-by-state, with individual communities opting in or out, much like the Nevada model.

[eBob1]

Someone didn't pay the piper. I like the way the first sentence reads, "Chicago's Cook County" because that is exactly the view that the city council has of the entire county.

[karpenterskids]

Wait...you can get a prostitute on Craig's List? :0

*rushes to get what I can before it's too late*

[Seaspray0]

I wonder what would happen if you posted an ad to donate your sperm.

[Tenichi1]

There are other places we can use our tax money to help out economy, not wasteful fund to sue!

Move on Cook County!

[gerrrg]

Gawd I love CL, but they have the weakest of control and enforcement of all the illegal stuff.

[professionaladventurer]

Of all the legal stuff you CAN'T sell on CL with their close minded SF approach to what should be bought and sold, it's about time someone attempts to deal with the illegal stuff on CL. If you can sue NAPSTER back in the day for allowing access to an illegal copy protected works that the same argument could be applied here.

[Magicland]

I'd much rather they deal with the overwhelming spam and fraudulent postings on Craigslist, rather than waste time and money on the same thing that can be found in every community in America's yellow pages (look under escorts) and MOST of their newspapers. The only difference is the yellow pages and newspapers are profiting from advertising the prostitution (thereby legally contributing to prostitution) while Craigslist is not.

[prv99]

You're right and seeing as how shutting down Napster ended all illegal trading of copyrighted material it only makes since that law enforcement, using tax payer dollars, should take the same approach.... NOT!

Get a clue!

[The_happy_switcher]

It's not prostitution. It's requests for 'donations.' That's not illegal. lol

[jacobwrangler]

I stopped using CraigsList along time ago to find escorts because most of them are fake ads and also because since November, Craigslist is working with law enforcement we just haven't seen to what extent yet. There are much better options out there that have become way more popular since November leading me to believe that Craigslist is losing ground. I use sites like www.naughtyreviews.com and www.mpreviews.com to find legitimate escorts and reviews.

[bkerrins]

I wish law enforcement would just leave that sort of stuff alone. They already have a tough enough job to do, but I just don't see any value in suing Craig's List because someone used their website. I don't see a value in delivering a jury notice 80 years late. I don't see a value in arresting people for marijuana. Legalize prostitution and marijuana, make them safe for people to use and tax the crap out of them.

[drbyte]

Funny, put a video camera in the room and film 'the escorting', start a web site, and it's all legal. It's a man's world.

[sanenazok]

Just look at a picture of idiot-smiling Todd Stroger (president of CC) to know what everyone in the county government here is like.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gtnbTdbNsauU/610x.jpg

[tmccrack]

I would think knowing exactly where prostitutes are (whether on a street corner or in an ad) would make his job easier. So rather than sue, I would think they would do their job. Plus, not sure if anyone explained the Internet to this Sheriff, but the odds are even if you shut down craigs list they would go elsehere. Pretty easy to setup shop on that there Internet thingee.

[anabangbang]

I was thinking the same thing and really feel sorry for the people in cook county that have a sheriff who thinks he can get rid of the criminals in his area by getting rid of a section in an internet website.

Isnt knowing where to find the criminals half the battle of crime fighting or am I just Duh ?

[YankeePoodle]

I am outraged at craigslist for not doing the job of Sherrif of Cook County.

[JCPayne]

Clear up your own back yard Cook County.

[thelemurking]

$100,000 for lost man hours for a couple of lazy cops to sit around back at the office and surf their way through craigslist? come on! how do they calculate these figures? they must use the same math that the RIAA.

[Seaspray0]

You're forgetting about the cost of all the hardware they used while doing their search... computers, monitors, playboys, penthouses...

[usarioclave1]

How are craigslist ads any different from the erotic ads in the back of most of the alternative weekly papers?

[anabangbang]

they are free or cost $5.... the ads in the paper cost $75-$150 per week.
another difference is that the papers tend to have "political relationships"

obviously, uncle sam isnt happy about craigslist moving into his turf and drastically undercutting him.

[readthis500]

it could even be to their advantage: http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Cops-use-Craigslist-in-child-sex-sting-40738642.html

[mikeburek]

So when 3 people responded to the 15-yr old for sex ad, did they get arrested? Isn't that like a sting operation, except it needs a lot less planning and guns. And how is having child molesters coming to the police a bad thing? Is it easier for police to find prostitution in a dark alleyway that is advertised in whispers among trusted friends?

Will the police dept sue the makers of radar speed guns because they prove there are speeders and chasing a speeder costs time?

[Button Boy]

SO he got his 15 minutes of fame. Now he can disappear back into obscurity, after all those speaking engagements he'll get with the local churches.