MEMPHIS, TN - Dozens of prostitutes were taken down early Thursday morning, April 24 after police say they agreed to some dirty deeds. One of those arrested was 14 year-old girl. The undercover operation was part of the MPD Blue C.R.U.S.H. initiative, called Operation Fallen Angel. Undercover officers with the MPD Organized Crime Unit hit the streets to arrest and serve warrants to prostitutes and their pimps.

Several women were put into the back of an MPD processing van after being arrested for prostitution, drugs and various other crimes. Two women were found working the Wonderbread parking lot on Jackson Avenue.

Eyewitness News Everywhere spoke to some of the women accused of hooking. When asked why she got into a car with a man, one of the women picked up in the Wonderbread lot said because she was tired of walking in her house shoes.

"Why are you standing here bothering me?" she asked reporter Tenikka Smith.

Tenikka: "So you weren't prostituting?
Woman: "There was a man, he offered me something. I didn't agree and told him no. So, therefore, I guess not."
Tenikka: "Are you a prostitute?"
Woman: "Are you?"
Tenikka: "No."
Woman: "Okay then... do you give out your p----?"

Police say they found a crackpipe in the woman's coat.

"You can't keep doing this, you are living a dangerous life," said MPD Detective Monique Martin. "You saw females get into cars. They don't know these people. They don't know where they are going or being taken to. That's a risk that they're taking just to make a quick buck."

Police say on any given day, especially a day of good weather, hundreds of prostitutes work Memphis streets.

Eyewitness News Everywhere also spoke with a woman who calls herself "Carolyn".

Tenikka: "Is this what you do to survive?"
Carolyn: "No ma'am. I do everything. I'm an entrepreneur."
Tenikka: "Are you trying to get out of it?"
Carolyn: "No ma'am."
Tenikka: "Are you going to continue to prostitute?"
Carolyn: "If I stop selling it, I'd be a damn fool if I gave it away."

Det. Martin says many of the women who were picked up in the undercover sting are repeat offenders with long rap sheets. One woman, Nancy Escobar, was recently arrested for prostitution and her record includes one felony and 124 misdemeanor convictions from crimes ranging from robbery and possession, to credit card fraud.

"Different officers over ten to twelve years have run across the same prostitutes," Martin said.

One woman said she has been arrested 120 times on the same charge.

"They steady picking me up for the same thing and I already beat the case."

As for claims of entrapment, or prostitutes who say the undercover officers engaged in inappropriate activity?

"There's no truth to any physical involvement with the undercover officer and the suspect," Martin said. "Everything is recorded... what happens in the vehicle, and as soon as they are picked up, they are in the car no longer than two or three minutes."

Police also say any time a person is charged with prostitution, they receive a summons to report to the Memphis-Shelby County Health Department to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. If they refuse to do so, a warrant is issued in their name for violating the Tennessee Venereal Diseases Control Law, which is designed to prevent the negligent or willful spread of STDs.

Det. Martin also says officers will often find weapons, such as knives and razor blades, on the women arrested. She says the weapons are for protection, and in some cases, to commit other crimes.

"A lot of times, they will approach a person to make a deal offering sex for money or drugs and once that deal goes down, they may have a third party involved, that's going to rob the victim."

"They have pimps, they have enablers that are putting these girls out on the streets to commit these crimes."

Martin says many of the women are offered help, but refuse to take it.

"They figure they can get what they need out on the streets. Get the money and the drugs... whatever to support their habit."

Memphis Police say social workers and counselors work in the jails and are provided to the women who are arrested for prostitution. Officers say most of the women have typical stories of abuse, neglect and abandonment.

"They don't have family. They're not from this area, they're from a different part of the world. They stop here and their point is to make a quick buck," Martin said.

Martin also says, often, some of the women are angry when arrested.

"We hear it quite often, of their anger of basically disrupting what they believe to be their job. What they believe to be their routine behavior everyday out in the street."

Accused prostitute Carolyn says she knows how to beat the system.

"Whatever they put on the affidavit, we got no other choice but to plead guilty, because if we plead not guilty, we got to go to trial and we got to sit there even longer. So we just say we guilty and we out in thirty days."

"At the same time," Carolyn continued, "that gives them no right to enjoy us. Treat us like s---, then lock us up, just because they know what we do."

What do you think? It's your turn to Speak Up! Memphis.