 |
| Just off 82nd Avenue, near S.E. Duke Street, police arrest a woman on charges of soliciting for prostitution. (Photo by David F. Ashton) |
|
Earth to City Council: We need those zones back!
Last December, in our editorial composed largely of a well-research report on the subject by our correspondent David F. Ashton, we pointed out that although residents and law enforcement personnel along S.E. 82nd “Avenue of Roses” found that Portland’s “Prostitution Free Zone” and “Drug Free Zone” ordinances were working well, and having the needed effect along this major street, the City Council let the ordinances expire.
The rationale for this lapse by our city government was apparently that there could be an infringement on the rights of prostitutes and drug users, plus a study reportedly found lack of evidence of the effectiveness of the ordinances. Oddly, the study on which these conclusions were based concentrated entirely on “Old Town” in Northwest Portland, mostly on the drug matter, and did not even consider S.E. 82nd Avenue, where the major problem was and is prostitution.
So, what has happened since these ordinances were allowed to lapse? Once again, David Ashton has been reporting on that at his www.eastpdxnews.com. Although 82nd is outside the primary service area of THE BEE, it’s the nearest major commercial street, and frankly ladies and gentlemen, 82nd is NOT that far away! With David’s permission we quote from his most recent report, which had the depressing title, “Prostitution blooms on Avenue of Roses”….
Even though it’s vastly understaffed, the Portland Police Bureau Drug and Vice Division (DVD) goes after the fifty or so local sex-for-sale pushers, commonly known as pimps.
We learned from Sgt. Doug Justice, the man who currently heads DVD, how their three-person “division” doesn’t have the manpower to go after street-level prostitution. “We leave that to the precincts.”
On any afternoon or evening these days, along 82nd Avenue of Roses, it seems like we’re seeing more and more “girls on the stroll” – prostitutes, slowly walking along, or hanging out at bus stops as bus after bus rolls by.
“It’s not your imagination,” said Portland Police Bureau East Precinct Officer Rich Steinbronn who, along with Officer Michael Gallagher and a team of cops, was working a prostitution mission on the day we spoke. “Prostitution has been steadily increasing – and with nice weather, it’s really taken off. Typically they really don’t like working in the rain. But if they’re forced to, they'll work in any kind of weather.”
It isn’t necessarily the way these prostitutes wear their hair, dress, or are made up that makes them stand out as being different from female pedestrians – as we learned from Gallagher, as we watched the action on 82nd Avenue, while hidden in an undercover police vehicle. “Normally, women who walk along a street don’t keep looking around trying to make eye contact with passing cars,” he commented.
As we waited for officers and decoys to get into position, the officers candidly admitted they’ll never put an end to street prostitution. “Street prostitution ‘imports crime’ – it brings individuals into a neighborhood for the purpose of committing an illegal act,” Gallagher said.
“Unlike a ‘john’ (customer) who sets up a ‘date’ (sex-for-money meeting) from a CraigsList ad in a motel room or apartment,” Steinbronn added, “these johns will drive the prostitute around the corner and into the neighborhoods alongside 82nd Avenue. They’ll take care of their business in a church parking lot, in front of a school, just along a side street. They leave behind used condoms.”
Beyond negative impacts on neighborhoods, the officers say they’ve seen an alarming rise in the number of young girls – as young as 14 years of age – being pressured into prostitution.
With all of the team in place, we watched as this particular “female decoy mission” or “john mission” swung into action.
We watched a female Portland Police Officer, dressed in very ordinary, casual clothing – not a flashy, attention-getting costume – slowly walk up and down 82nd Avenue. Unlike some actual street prostitutes we’ve observed, these female undercover officers don’t shout, wave, or point at passing cars.
Within minutes, though, we saw the driver of a car on 82nd Avenue slow down and make eye contact with the undercover officer. The driver turned into a side street and slowly drove past the undercover vehicle, and then turned into a restaurant parking lot. He motioned for the female undercover officer to walk over to him.
It didn’t take long for the john to propose a sex act for a specific amount of money. The undercover officer made an innocuous gesture that signaled the “Custody Team” of uniformed officers to swoop in and make the arrest.
“It’s amazing how many guys go cruising 82nd Avenue looking for a prostitute,” Steinbronn remarked. “We would arrest many more johns during each mission, except for the time it takes for our custody team to process and transport each of these alleged prostitution customers to the Justice Center, and book them into jail.”
We noticed two females, dressed in inappropriately short skirts and low-cut blouses, wearing a great deal of makeup, strolling along in shoes with heels so high that most women would consider wearing them “cruel and unusual punishment”. A man, dressed in prototypical zoot suit attire, walked with them.
The group seemed oblivious to the police cars roaring by with emergency lights flashing as another john got busted.
Officer Gallagher told us he recognizes the trio from past prostitution missions. He radioed to a marked patrol car, asking the officers to move them down the avenue so they can continue working their mission.
In all, their team arrested seven johns in one day, and eleven the next.
Asked why half of their missions are focused on arresting johns, Steinbronn explained, “Without the demand created by the johns, there wouldn’t be the supply of prostitutes working the street.”
Their missions are focused on curbing prostitution along 82nd Avenue this time, Steinbronn explained. “We found very few prostitutes working N.E. Sandy Boulevard, in the Parkrose area. They’ve really congregated along the length of 82nd Avenue, from Sandy Boulevard south to Clackamas County.”
We asked the officers why they think prostitution along 82nd Avenue of Roses is flourishing.
Choosing their words carefully, the officers told us that since certain Portland City ordinances were allowed to end, the number of prostitutes working has increased, because there is little consequence if they’re arrested.
“Let me illustrate it like this,” Steinbronn explained. “We arrested a gal yesterday. She was taken into custody and to jail. And, we arrested the same gal again today, still wearing the exact same clothes she had on yesterday.”
When a custody team officer asked why she was back out on the street again, hopping – unknowingly – into yet another undercover police car, Steinbronn says the cop reported she said, “I need to turn two tricks [sex acts] today. I don’t worry about you guys. I’ll be out [of jail] in a couple of hours.”
While reinstating Prostitution-free Zones won’t “cure” street-level prostitution, everyone with whom we’ve spoken in law enforcement says they were a good “tool” to reduce the prevalence of street-sex sales activity.
We’re told that since cities in the Seattle region have stepped up anti-prostitution enforcement and instituted ordinances, their rates of prostitution have dropped – and prostitutes themselves report that they’ve traveled south to work the Portland streets, because the demand is high here and the penalties are low.
Perhaps when the makeup of Portland’s city government changes in the new year, city leaders will once again revisit the Prostitution-free Zone ordinance. If they want to hear it, Portland’s own police officers will tell them that the zones really do help reduce the sex – openly for sale – on East Portland streets.
Thus, with our thanks, this up-to-date report by David F. Ashton on the consequences along S.E. 82nd of the decision by the Portland City Council last year to let the Prostitution Free Zone and Drug Free Zone ordinances lapse.
Worrying about the rights of those who choose (or are compelled by pimps) to break the law is all well and good, but we submit that the rights of those who live and work in the affected area rightfully take precedence. And, despite the expressed fears by the City Council, these ordinances have stood up in court, found fair to all concerned.
We call on the new Portland City Council, headed by its new Mayor, Sam Adams, to re-enact these valuable and supportable ordinances and take a step to meaningfully improve the quality of life for those who live and work near Portland’s “82nd Avenue of Roses”. |
