Plan to Arrest Prostitutes Before They Solicit Assailed

A plan by two Orange County police departments to arrest street prostitutes on Harbor Boulevard before they solicit customers was criticized Wednesday as “illegal and unconstitutional” by a prostitution-advocacy group and an ACLU lawyer.

“It’s obviously an attempt to do an end run around all of our constitutional principles, including the fact that we’re considered innocent until proven guilty,” said Joan Howarth, assistant legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles.

Under the plan, which is still in a preliminary stage, police would obtain court orders allowing officers to bar from Harbor Boulevard any women who dress and behave like prostitutes, Santa Ana Police Lt. James Davis said. For example, women in skimpy clothing who flag down cars and get into them would be subject first to a warning, then arrest and citation for contempt.

Police Claim Recent Surge

Spokesmen for Santa Ana and Garden Grove police said they were forced to come up with the unconventional law enforcement approach because of a recent surge in prostitution on the busy thoroughfare. Davis said police will seek the court order within a month.

A spokeswoman for COYOTE, a prostitution rights’ organization based in San Francisco, joined with the ACLU in condemning the police strategy. Priscilla Alexander said the plan to seek a blanket court order against women who frequent Harbor Boulevard would not stop prostitution.

The police plan, Alexander predicted, “would only make the problem worse.”

But police said other efforts have, in the long run, proved unsuccessful in eliminating the prostitutes.

“A lot of the girls recognize that there is not a whole lot the police can do to get them off the street,” Davis said. “Up to now, prostitutes have been cited and released, and left on the boulevard.

“Eventually (with the court order), we will get them booked and into jail,” he said.

Police intend to follow criminal evidence rules that have been prepared by the Orange County district attorney’s office, Davis said, adding that the rules must be included on a report by arresting officers.

“These are things such as whether the woman is monitoring traffic, trying to flag traffic down, sticking their heads in a window and getting into cars with the ‘johns.’ A lot of times, the john will tell us that the woman solicited him, and some of the girls are not bashful either,” Davis said.

“Mode of dress, including short tight skirts, is another element” officers will be considering, he added.

Police also have invited about 800 Santa Ana business owners and residents to a public meeting tonight to ask them to sign affidavits citing the prostitution problem in their neighborhoods. The meeting is scheduled at 7 p.m. at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church, 730 S. Euclid St. in Santa Ana.

“These affidavits will also be introduced as evidence before the judge,” Davis said.

Other approaches, such as having officers pose as johns or female prostitutes, have been very effective in the past but also “very costly” in terms of police manpower, Davis said.

Moreover, complaints about prostitution activity have increased, officers said.

“Typically, they’re not going to motels but transacting business right in cars,” Davis said. “People have been coming out of their homes and have found used condoms, and hypodermic syringes from drug users. Little kids are seeing these things on the lawns,” Davis added.

But the ACLU’s Howarth said it would be difficult to support the proposed enforcement action because police want to arrest people “based on who we are and what we look like.”

And COYOTE representative Alexander contended that such a police crackdown will be counterproductive.

“These prostitutes will just move on to a smaller city where the enforcement is less and it will drive them underground, making it more dangerous,” Alexander contended.

“The police ought to be getting involved in fighting burglars, rapists and robbers. They won’t even enforce a temporary restraining order against a wife-beater. There are better things they can do with their time than arrest prostitutes,” she said.

Garden Grove Police Lt. John F. Baker acknowledged that a crackdown in Santa Ana and Garden Grove may only force prostitutes to move into another jurisdiction.

“I know we’re not going to eradicate or reform these girls, but if they go elsewhere, well, it’s up to whatever jurisdiction they go into. We’ll tackle that problem when it comes up,” Baker said.

Overcrowded conditions at the County Jail also have been a cause for police concern for months, Davis said.

Presently, prisoners are brought in, booked and a decision is then made whether to house them based on their arrest classification and past criminal record, Sheriff’s Department Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Orange County has a central women’s jail in Santa Ana and an additional area for women in the Intake Release Center at the main men’s jail. Both come under the operation of Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates. But as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, the central jail had 285 women in custody--20 more than the facility’s rating by the state Department of Corrections. In addition, Olson noted, the intake center, which has a 96-prisoner capacity, reported 90 women.

“The sheriff doesn’t want to cite and release anybody, but (because) of the jail crowding . . . we don’t have any room to play with. Each prisoner will be assessed and housed depending on jail population at the time of booking. No one who is considered to be a danger to the public would be released,” Olson said.