At a glance, Eugene’s hotbed for prostitution looks nothing like a red-light district.
Nonetheless, the vast majority of the 425 prostitution arrests made in the past three years were made within the residential West Jefferson neighborhood, police said.
The unsettling coupling of a stereotypical urban crime being committed in a residential neighborhood is a dichotomy West Jefferson residents have joined forces to eliminate.
Residents, along with police, social service workers and city prosecutors, formed the Prostitution Task Force in late 1999 with hopes of driving the flesh trade from the West Jefferson area and off Eugene streets entirely.
The team has since combatted street-level prostitution by working to make Eugene’s prosecution of prostitution, which typically consists of fines and probation, more proactive and adaptable, said Richard Bremer, Whiteaker Public Safety Station manager and Prostitution Task Force member.
Proactive Enforcement
A police commission subcommittee discussed Wednesday night at City Hall two city ordinances and two recommendations made by the Prostitution Task Force.
The first proposed ordinance would create a “Prostitution Free Zone,” in which people arrested for prostitution are prohibited from entering. The second ordinance proposal would modify the existing no-cruising ordinance to extend boundaries from downtown to areas where prostitution regularly occurs.
Because the ordinance would give city officials the power to move the boundaries of both the “Prostitution Free Zone” and no-cruising zones, Prostitution Task Force members are confident the ordinances would crackdown on prostitution not only in the West Jefferson area but also throughout the city, Bremer said.
“We’re trying not to make this a one-part deal but a continuous effort,” Bremer said.
The task force also recommended the city consider prosecuting prostitutes in the state court system, where the court could mandate convicted prostitutes enter drug rehabilitation programs.
Police Commission staff member Terry Smith said current prosecution of prostitutes isn’t encouraging them to leave the streets. He pointed out that of the 131 prostitution arrests made last year of both prostitutes and their customers, the same 37 prostitutes were arrested 54 times. Most of those 37 prostitutes are addicted to drugs, he said.
Eugene doesn’t offer social service organizations helping prostitutes kick drug habits and leave the streets, Eugene public relations officer Philip Weiler said. Prostitution Task Force members said that trying prostitutes in the state court system would give them access to the rehabilitation services that the city can’t offer.
The final recommendation made before the subcommittee was to post the identities of people convicted of soliciting prostitution on the Internet to combat the buyer end of prostitution and thereby reduce the demand for prostitutes, task force members said.
The subcommittee is scheduled to vote April 19 on which proposals will be sent to the Police Commission. The Police Commission will forward recommendations to the City Council for consideration in June.
The subcommittee, Police Commission and City Council will accept public input on the prostitution issue and discuss the effectiveness and legality of the proposals until council makes a decision, scheduled for early this summer. The next public forum on prostitution will be April 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
