Prostitution Sting Nets Policeman

A veteran San Diego police officer has been arrested for soliciting an undercover sheriff’s deputy at the Del Mar race track during a prostitution sting.

Sgt. Reginald Frank reportedly approached the undercover deputy and offered to pay her $40 for “a sex act,” said Lt. John Walker, who heads the Sheriff Department’s special investigation vice detail.

Frank, 36, was arrested in the grandstand at 4:30 p.m. Friday and issued a misdemeanor citation for soliciting an act of prostitution. As of late Monday, the Sheriff’s Department had not forwarded information about the arrest to the San Diego County district attorney’s office, which would file a criminal complaint.

Walker said such stings are routine, and an arrest is made only after someone approaches an undercover officer and offers money for sex.

Friday’s operation lasted about four hours, and Frank, a 12-year veteran of the San Diego police force, was the only person arrested, Walker said. Deputies chose the Del Mar race track at random, he said.

At the time of his arrest, Frank was a detective in the department’s robbery unit. He has also served on the Border Crime Prevention Unit, a joint anti-crime squad made up of San Diego police and Border Patrol agents. The unit was disbanded last year after several controversial shootings but has since been reestablished as the Border Crime Intervention Unit.