Police Pledge Not to Relent in Fighting Prostitution

Los Angeles police pledged Thursday to “commit the resources necessary” to prevent prostitutes and their customers from regaining the upper hand on Sepulveda Boulevard.

In a series of phone calls to business and homeowner groups, police representatives attempted to head off the controversy created last week when Councilman Joel Wachs said he would not pay for a special task force that has been fighting prostitution on Sepulveda Boulevard.

At a Thursday night meeting of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., Capt. Art Sjoquist said that police plan to assign a patrol car to a seven-mile stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard--from Ventura Boulevard north to Lassen Street--strictly to combat prostitution. He said the patrol will begin next week and have two shifts of two officers each on the boulevard for 16 hours a day.

The effort will be “a real threat to prostitutes,” Sjoquist told about 100 residents at the meeting.

Deputy Chief Ron Frankle said in an interview Thursday that his officers have assured community groups that police will “commit the resources necessary to control that street,” despite loss of the task force.

Task Force Funded by Bernardi

The task force had been financed by Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who represented the area before recent council reapportionment. He set aside $82,000 in discretionary office funds to tackle prostitution on Sepulveda and drug dealers on Blythe Street. The undercover task force was credited with making more than 300 of the Van Nuys vice division’s 561 arrests during the first 10 months of 1986.

But Wachs, who inherited the Sepulveda area in the recent redistricting, said he is spending his discretionary money on opening new offices and establishing ties with new constituents. Wachs added that, if he has any money left at the end of the fiscal year, he will be happy to contribute it to the police. “But I won’t know that until then,” he said.

Sjoquist, commander of the Van Nuys police station, said that police officials understand Wachs’ decision to spend the money elsewhere and are not critical of the councilman’s reasoning.

After Wachs’ announcement last week, however, one sergeant complained that many prostitutes are attracted to the area because “they know that the enforcement abilities of Van Nuys vice is not there.”

“The loss of those funds doesn’t mean this area is going to go down the tubes,” Sjoquist said Thursday. “We are not saying adios to Sepulveda Boulevard because Bernardi is no longer going to give us money.”

Sjoquist said there is no disagreement that extra efforts are necessary if police are to control prostitution on the boulevard.

“When we stop running task forces, after a while it starts to come back and build up and get worse and worse.” Sjoquist said. “We can’t let it go on or it will get out of hand again.”

Frankle pledged more uniformed and undercover officers for the boulevard as the need arises but would not disclose specific strategies other than that the patrols will begin next week.

The patrols will be evaluated after two months, he said.

Frankle said he met with Wachs in part to dispel any suggestion that police are unhappy with the councilman’s plan to spend the discretionary funds on other needs.

“Councilman Bernardi’s transfer of funds to Van Nuys was a unique windfall,” Frankle said. “We’re not depending on that in the long haul.”

Wachs, who attended the homeowners association meeting Thursday night, said he welcomes the new patrols. Residents at the meeting also gave their support, with some offering to help police by taking photographs of suspected prostitutes and pimps who frequent their neighborhoods.

Residents Warned

Sjoquist cautioned the residents, however, not to try to confront such people.

Randy Seymour, owner of the Golden Lion Motor Inn, said prostitutes often get into fights on Sepulveda Boulevard in front of his business, and that employees have been threatened by pimps.