Legal Fears Hamper War on Prostitution

Nearly seven months after a controversial state law aimed at curbing prostitution took effect, officials in Los Angeles and other cities with notorious concentrations of streetwalkers acknowledge they have made only limited use of the new measure because some fear inviting a civil-rights lawsuit.

Vice officers with the Los Angeles Police Department complain that a lengthy set of enforcement guidelines, drawn up by a cautious city attorney’s office, have rendered the new law virtually useless in some parts of the city.

“There are so many restrictions that have been placed on this law that it’s almost laughable,” said one LAPD vice officer. “We’re handcuffed in our use of it.”

Underuse of the new law, sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) in response to local law enforcement authorities’ requests, comes at a time when the city is experiencing a five-year decline in prostitution arrests--due, in part, to staffing decreases in the LAPD’s vice unit.

“Here is an example of giving police officers a tool they asked for but that some aren’t using,” said a frustrated Katz. “And if it’s because of some bureaucratic fumbling between the city attorney and the Police Department, then that needs to be resolved. This is just not acceptable.”

Indeed, fed-up residents and police say they are at their wits’ end.

“We thought this law was going to be a tool that would change things drastically, but it hasn’t because we’ve got a city attorney’s office that is more concerned with paperwork than enforcement,” said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. “This is just another indication that the city is going in the wrong direction.”

The city attorney’s office said it crafted the guidelines to make sure the cases don’t get thrown out of court but has nonetheless asked the LAPD to put its concerns in writing.

When enacted last fall, the measure was touted as a powerful new tool to combat blatant street crime, including prostitution and drug dealing. By making it a crime to “loiter with the intent to commit prostitution or a drug offense,” the measure was designed to empower police to make arrests based on activities they consider precursors to crime such as beckoning to cars, talking to passersby or standing in an area known for prostitution.

Early on, however, representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the measure for criminalizing otherwise legal behavior. And USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who testified against the bill during hearings in Sacramento, predicted that a court would eventually declare the legislation unconstitutional.

Last week, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Southern California said that while her office remains very concerned with the loitering law, they have not been monitoring it. “We have not had an occasion to challenge it yet,” said associate director Liz Schroeder.

Nonetheless, fear of a legal challenge from either the ACLU or a defense attorney prompted the Los Angeles city attorney’s office to craft a special set of guidelines for police officers to follow when using the measure, to ensure that such cases hold up in court.

Under the guidelines for prostitution-related arrests, for example, vice officers must take a full-length photograph of a suspect, document detailed evidence of the person’s guilt and submit all known evidence of his or her involvement in prostitution during the preceding six months.

Critics charge that the guidelines, which cover 10 additional points, are so exhaustive and time-consuming that most officers lack the time and backup needed to meet all the requirements.

One exception is the LAPD’s Hollywood Division, which unlike the city’s 17 other police divisions, possesses a large vice unit and a sophisticated, computerized prostitution-tracking system. In fact, nearly half of the 65 prostitution-related arrests made under the law during the first five months of the year were in Hollywood.

Similarly, law enforcement officials say the law has worked well in the Rampart Division, when applied to drug dealing. But like Hollywood, police in Rampart have set up a special enforcement detail with extra officers.

Adding to the problems in other police divisions, vice officers in some of the city’s seediest neighborhoods are privately complaining that city prosecutors at the central courthouse are much stricter in their interpretation of the guidelines than in Hollywood, which happens to be the jurisdiction of Deputy City Atty. Bill Sterling, who helped author the law and the guidelines.

As a result, some officers say fewer cases are filed outside of Hollywood, a point of contention with city prosecutors.

“I know there is some level of resentment out there,” said Alan Dahle, a deputy city attorney who supervises the city attorney’s central office. “But the characterization that it is tougher here to get charges filed than somewhere else is simply unfair. The filing standard is exactly the same here as in Hollywood.”

Dahle said police officers need to follow the guidelines to ensure they make justifiable arrests and so that prosecutors will have enough evidence to prove their cases, which so far number nine in Central Municipal Court.

If some vice officers are feeling frustrated, Dahle said, it may be that they simply did not understand what the law provides.

“I believe police officers thought they would be able to see someone with a history of prostitution and arrest them, but you can’t just go down the block sweeping up prostitutes,” Dahle said. “That’s not what this law allows . . . and if we abuse it, we’ll lose it.”

Controversy over the law’s application has drawn the attention of Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, who recently asked police for a report detailing their concerns and suggestions about the current enforcement policy. Hahn made the request after the issue was raised during a Business Watch meeting in the Newton Division.

LAPD Capt. Jim Tatreau, commanding officer of the Newton Division, said Hahn also made a commitment to have his prosecutors train LAPD patrol officers on how to use the law so that they too can begin enforcing the measure. Currently, only vice officers in Los Angeles are allowed to use it to make arrests.

Such a change could make a considerable difference in the number of arrests made under the Katz law given the low staffing of most LAPD vice units, which have been cut by 25% or more during the last five years as department resources have been shifted to patrol duties.

By comparison, both patrol and vice officers in Long Beach are allowed to enforce the Katz measure, which authorities say has been used to make more than 100 arrests. Another reason for the higher arrest rate in Long Beach may be because the city attorney has established fewer and easier guidelines for police to follow.

A Long Beach police officer, for example, need only observe a suspected hooker loitering in a public place and engaging in behavior consistent with prostitution, such as repeatedly beckoning and stopping passersby, to make an arrest. During the last two months, prosecutors have used the law to charge 18 suspected prostitutes or their alleged customers.

Prosecutions under the law are scarce. In Hollywood, only two cases so far have gone to trial: In both cases, defendants were convicted of soliciting and loitering.

In the San Fernando Valley, police have submitted 16 cases to the city attorney’s office in Van Nuys, resulting in six convictions with jail sentences ranging from two to 120 days. (Seven additional defendants have charges pending.)

In San Francisco, vice officers report using the anti-loitering measure in conjunction with a public-nuisance ordinance to make more than 1,500 arrests. Yet not a single charge has been filed under the Katz law.

“I just personally don’t find it a very persuasive charge,” said John Farrell, head prosecutor for the San Francisco district attorney’s office misdemeanor trial unit. “It’s very difficult to prove, and it’s our experience that a statute like this would not be well received by either the judges or the jurors.”

As a result, Farrell said, suspected hookers may be booked on suspicion of violating the Katz law, but when it comes time to actually bring charges, his office files complaints against repeat offenders using a public-nuisance statute. One of the reasons: The public nuisance law has already sustained a court challenge.

Anaheim police, meanwhile, say the new statute is simply too time-consuming to enforce and as a result, they have made just one arrest since January.

Los Angeles city prosecutors say there is more to the law than simply tallying arrest rates and convictions. Sterling pointed out that the law’s true success can be measured in Hollywood, which he said has experienced a drastic reduction in street crime since the law took effect.

“Street crime is no longer being committed with the same vengeance as it once was in Hollywood,” Sterling said. “It used to be there would be four hookers at every intersection, but now you have trouble finding one.”

But in Van Nuys, that trend has failed to hold, said Schultz of the homeowners group.

After noticing an initial reduction in streetwalking along the notorious Sepulveda Boulevard corridor, Schultz said prostitution has returned--only this time along the side streets.

“We’re so frustrated here in Van Nuys,” Schultz said. “What we need is a much larger vice force composed of officers who have the freedom to enforce the laws.”