Archive for West Virginia

Digital Billboard to Out Prostitute’s Customers

prostitution billboards

Officials in one West Virginia town are taking a hard stand against anyone coming to their area to solicit a prostitute.  Huntington police chief Joe Ciccarelli says people come from neighboring states to pick up prostitutes and it’s fueling the drug culture there by “paying herion addicted prostitutes.”  A digital billboard on one of the town’s busiest streets will soon bear the faces of those caught picking up a prostitute.  Chief Ciccarelli says, “they are coming here so they don’t have to face scrutiny in their own neighborhoods, but we don’t want them here.”  Opponents say this is the wrong way to go about curbing the problem, but Huntington’s Mayor, Steve Williams, supports the idea.  Williams says, “sometimes it takes a little public shaming to catch somebody’s attention and we’ll start putting faces up there.”  Williams says the campaign sends a clear message, “don’t come to Huntington to solicit prostitution. Period.”  The digital billboard is being paid for with funds from drug seizures.  The photo above is what’s currently on the billboard, but officials say there will be faces on the board in as little as two weeks.