STANTON : Prostitution-Vehicle Law Is Under Study

Mayor Sal Sapien has asked the city attorney to determine whether the city can adopt a law allowing it to impound vehicles used in prostitution.

Sapien said such a law is used in Chicago to deter prostitution. Vehicle owners there must pay a $500 penalty, plus towing costs, to get their cars back.

Stanton City Atty. Thomas W. Allen said Tuesday2 that he is already studying the Chicago law and will report back to the council on its legal and fiscal impacts.

“I think we need to do something drastic to solve the (prostitution) problem,” Sapien said. “I’m not saying this is the solution, but it’s a step.”

Just two weeks ago, the council directed the city’s two foot-patrol sheriff’s deputies, who were originally hired to combat drug dealing, to work occasionally in cruisers with patrol and vice deputies to curb prostitution that residents say has increased in recent months.

Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Eason said the number of prostitutes on Beach Boulevard has increased to as many as 40 on certain nights, but the prostitution problem has not reached “panic levels.”

Eason blamed the recent increase in prostitutes on several factors: the season and the elimination of traffic officers in Stanton.

Officers traditionally notice an upswing in prostitution in midsummer and midwinter. The city’s decision to shift traffic deputies from cruisers to foot patrol, to combat drug activity, eliminated a more visible police presence on the main streets, Eason said.

Eason also said that “circuit girls,” or transient prostitutes, have simply reached Stanton in recent months.

In Chicago, automobiles belonging to prostitutes or their customers can be confiscated if police suspect they are being used in the commission of a crime, Sapien said. Car owners are granted a hearing within 12 hours before a judge. The hearing determines whether the car was properly impounded.

If the judge rules there is no evidence that a crime occurred, the vehicle is returned to the owner with no penalty. But if the impound is deemed legal, the owner must pay $500 plus towing and storage costs to get the vehicle back, according to Sapien.

“It’s really a successful crime deterrent in Chicago,” said Sapien, who talked to that city’s director of public safety.

Sapien suggested that Stanton could hire a retired judge who would be on call to hold the hearings as quickly as possible.

But Sapien’s council colleagues asked whether the California Constitution would allow such a law. They also questioned the costs of hiring a judge and paying for storage of cars deemed wrongly impounded.