It is pretty common in the municipal courts, especially with sting operations, Shawnee will do stings, Mission will do stings, but Overland Park is the most active in prositution stings. Stings usually start where they put an add on a website, like on a back page or something and then lure people in and then arrest them.
Those are usually patronizing cases. People get confused when they say solicitation because from TV, people think solicitation is always prostitution, but it is not.
Solicitation is anytime you ever try to induce somebody else to commit a crime, whether that is soliciting a murder case, soliciting a theft or soliciting prostitution. So the crime actually in Kansas is, as far as the most common one, is patronizing a prostitute.
It is a low level misdemeanor. It is a class C misdemeanor. The worst thing can happen to you is you go to jail for thirty days. It is such a nasty charge that most people are very concerned with keeping it off their record. You can explain the DUI, you can explain even a marijuana possession, but it is very difficult to explain a patronizing a prostitute case.
Usually, they are not a sex crime or anything like that like a sexual battery or sexual assault would be. They are just straight misdemeanors with no registration requirment. There are no special requirement that you report or something like that if you get convicted of it. No, they virtually never are because the police officer that is setting you up generally does not perform some sort of sex act to you.
