The State - News from Sept. 2, 1988

A plan by two Orange County police departments to arrest women they suspect are prostitutes even before they solicit was criticized as “illegal and unconstitutional” by a prostitution advocacy group and an ACLU lawyer. Police plan to obtain restraining orders that would allow officers to bar from Harbor Boulevard any women who dress in skimpy clothing and flag down cars. Spokesmen for Santa Ana and Garden Grove police said they were forced to come up with the unconventional law enforcement approach because of the increase in prostitution and overcrowding at the Orange County Jail. Joan Howarth, assistant legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, called the move “an attempt to do an end run around all of our constitutional principles.”