Police in Prince Georges County, Maryland, plan to live-tweet photos of johns that it arrests. "We won't tell you when or where, other than it's somewhere in the county sometime next week," according to a statement on the police agency's web site.

The sting will be conducted by the vice unit, which will target johns with smart phones in tow: "From the ads to the arrests, we'll show you how the PGPD is battling the oldest profession. Suspect photos and information will be tweeted." The announcement characterized the tactic as a "progressive" and "unprecedented."

Evidently, police there haven't read The Scarlet Letter.

If convicted johns were sentenced to walk around with a scarlet J sewn into their shirts I'd find it distasteful—but at least the punishment would follow a criminal conviction.

In contrast, the PGPD won't be embarrassing convicts. They're going to publicly shame suspects before their trial, despite the fact that the state is supposed to extend to them the presumption of innocence until a jury of their peers finds them guilty. Do the citizens in Prince Georges County really want to instill in their police officers the attitude that they can mete out punishment from the street?