HOLLYWOOD : Judge Extends Hours for Crackdown on Prostitution
In a victory for law enforcement authorities, a Hollywood judge on Wednesday agreed to broaden a controversial program designed to crack down on streetwalking by criminalizing otherwise legal behavior.
Currently, those convicted of prostitution in Hollywood, South-Central Los Angeles and parts of the San Fernando Valley are--as a condition of probation--given maps marked with areas where they can be arrested between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. for simply walking down a street, talking to a motorist or sitting in a car with a motorist.
Hollywood Municipal Court Supervising Judge Michael S. Mink extended the program to 24 hours a day in Hollywood after law enforcement authorities convinced him that prostitutes had changed their hours to circumvent the map’s dusk-till-dawn conditions.
Civil libertarians have questioned whether the program is too broad, but it has been applauded by police and prosecutors.
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