Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : CITIES : Three Cities Make Plans to Crack Down on Prostitution

When summer comes to Orange County, it brings thousands upon thousands of tourists, many of whom focus their attention on the area of Disneyland in Anaheim.

One attraction officials from at least three cities feel the visitors can easily do without is the growing prostitution trade along Harbor Boulevard, almost within sight of the Magic Kingdom.

To deal with the problem, mayors, city managers and police chiefs from Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana held the first of a series of meetings to lay plans for dealing with the issue that plagues a seven-mile stretch of the major roadway.

“We’re not talking about free-lancers. We’re talking about circuit prostitutes,” said Garden Grove Mayor Jonathan H. Cannon of the coordinated effort that will aim primarily at prostitutes who come to town to capitalize on the tourist trade.

A task-force approach to the problem hasn’t been discussed by the cities before, Cannon said, “because we assumed the system was working.”

However, Cannon said, prostitutes arrested in Garden Grove have been given short jail terms because prior arrest records weren’t shown or were ignored.

“We’ve had prostitutes arrested for the 15th or 16th time who have gotten five days,” the mayor said.

Santa Ana City Manager Robert C. Bobb said the prostitution trade produces an abundance of crime such as robbery, assault, murder, drug abuse and rape.

“We totally disagree with social libertarians who say prostitution is a victimless crime,” Bobb said.