City considers new tactic to fight prostitution

Photo by john Larson

SIGN OF THE TIMES. Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, Gloria Ripoli, owner of Gloria’s Bar and Grill and State Representative Steve Conway at the anti-crime rally.

Dan Hensley, a community liaison officer with Tacoma Police Department (TPD), knows well the toll prostitution can take on a neighborhood. He has been assigned to Citizens Against Prostitution, one of the teams of city employees in Tacoma’s Clean and Safe initiative, where he is putting his knowledge of the problem to use to help residents of a South End neighborhood hard hit by the street-level sex trade.

From January 2007 through August 2009 there were about 2,000 calls to police regarding prostitution in Tacoma. Much of this activity is along the Pacific Avenue corridor from approximately South 72nd Street to the city limits.

Kidnapping, rape, robbery and aggravated assault are four crimes commonly associated with prostitution. Beside the violent activity the sex trade brings to the area, it also impacts the quality of life for residents. Parents complain about prostitutes servicing customers in public and discarding used condoms along the routes children walk to school. Some female residents have reported being propositioned by men who think they are prostitutes as they walk in their own neighborhoods.

“That makes me angry,” Hensley said. “For someone to think every woman walking down the street is a prostitute, that needs to change.”

The city assigned the Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) designation to this part of the city. This allows police to arrest known prostitutes for simply being in the area. Hensley said this helps fight prostitution, “but only if we are conducting enforcement on a regular basis.”

Police Chief Don Ramsdell said lately there has not been as much enforcement as he would like, but that will change. Extra enforcement, including possible undercover stings, will be underway soon.

Hensley discussed a potential new tactic during the Sept. 24 meeting of Tacoma City Council’s Public Safety, Human Resources and Education Committee.

A new state law that went into effect in July allows cities to impound the vehicles of people caught soliciting prostitutes. A $500 fee must be paid before the vehicle is released, plus towing and storage fees. A city needs two things to utilize this tactic. It must have an area known for such activity, which Tacoma has with its SOAP designation. It also must post signs warning of this penalty at the boundaries of this area.

Kent just implemented this penalty. All those who have been arrested so far have paid the fine that same day, according to Hensley.

Jon Walker from the City Attorney’s Office, who provides legal counsel to TPD, cautioned council members about potential problems.

Seattle police were impounding cars of motorists caught driving with a suspended license until the city got hit with a class action lawsuit. If someone arrested for prostitution is acquitted, or the charges are dropped, that individual could take action against the city to recoup the $500 plus towing and storage fees. The city does not get to keep the $500, Walker noted. It goes to the state to pay for programs to help women leave the prostitution lifestyle.

Under the law, a police officer is supposed to ask the suspect if a friend or relative can come to the scene and drive the vehicle away, according to Walker.

While the council has not authorized using this new law, signs warning of the potential of impound have been made and were unveiled during a rally on a vacant lot on Pacific Avenue on Sept. 25.

“We have been fighting this problem of prostitution for too many years,” State Representative Steve Conway said to area residents gathered in a vacant lot at South 82nd Street and Pacific Avenue.

In meetings that he and State Representative Steve Kirby had with neighbors, they told their elected officials that customers need to be held accountable. That led to new impound law. “That was your idea. All we did was make it a law,” Conway said.

The signs were presented to business owners and managers in the SOAP zone.

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