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EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — ‎‎Officers in East Cleveland worked on taking back the streets and cleaning up a prostitution problem in their city Thursday.‎‎

Police and city leaders said prostitution is happening on busy city streets and near schools, which is something they want to stop before kids return to the classroom.

‎‎‎”East Cleveland is the type of community where housing, business, schools, are all close to each other and street-level crimes are problems to the neighbors and they are illegal,” said Mayor Gary Norton.

With school starting next week, the mayor said that he and the police chief felt it was time to take action.

So on Thursday, police set up a sting operation. Male officers went out to find alleged prostitutes, and female officers dressed as prostitutes went out to find men attempting to purchase sex.

It didn’t take long to make an arrest. Moments after officers hit the streets, alleged prostitutes propositioned the cops.

“Children do not need to be walking to school and have this happening,” said Police Chief Mike Cardilli.

The mayor said another goal of the sting is to get women involved in prostitution the help they need.

Three people were arrested in the sting.

Police said they will continue to do these types of crackdowns as often as possible.