Responding to complaints from Eugene residents, the Eugene Police Commission drafted an ordinance and modified another Thursday night to create a prostitution-free zone between Fifth and Eighth avenues and Washington and Chambers streets.
The commission had received several complaints from neighborhood residents that “johns” regularly cruised the area, soliciting them and their children for sex. A commission subcommittee recommended that prostitutes should be cited in state rather than municipal courts because of the former’s ability to send offenders to local drug treatment programs.
The city already has a prostitution-free zone in the area of 29th Avenue and Willamette Street.
The subcommittee also recommended that prostitutes and those soliciting sex would receive equal sanctions, and that those convicted of prostitution-related crimes would be excluded from the prostitution-free zones for the period of one year.
Plans to publish photos of those convicted of prostitution-related crimes were initially added to the draft but were struck from the final version after commissioners expressed concerns about the plan’s constitutionality.
Similar measures enacted in Portland were struck down as unconstitutional by the Oregon Supreme Court.
Another ordinance — already on the books and intended to stop motorists “cruising” down main thoroughfares — was modified to specifically target “johns” who typically drive through an area two orthree times looking for prostitutes.
The ordinances will be referred to the Eugene City Council for review and decision.