Ken Harrison

A highly visible police presence, typically with extra uniformed officers, is intended to discourage area street prostitution. Extra police presence is expensive, of course, and is effective only if the police follow it up with more permanent strategies. It can also create the perception that the area is unsafe. Alternative methods to establish a police presence are to open a police station (e.g., a storefront office, mobile office or kiosk) in the area, or affix antiprostitution warning signs to police vehicles patrolling the area. Private security forces might also be deployed to supplement a police presence.

Many courts order prostitutes and clients to stay out of specifically defined areas where street prostitution is prevalent, as a condition of either bail or probation. This practice is commonly referred to as "mapping" offenders out of areas. This practice may, however, displace prostitutes to more remote areas outside the prohibited zone, areas which may prove more hazardous to the prostitutes.

Some communities have enhanced penalties for prostitution-related offenses committed within specific geographic areas. These penalty enhancements are intended to move the street prostitution market to other locations so the target area can be redeveloped. You should be careful that the problem is not displaced to areas where the impact will be even worse.

In addition to routinely enforcing prostitution laws, the police often conduct intensive arrest campaigns against prostitutes, clients or both. These campaigns significantly increase the risks of arrest, at least temporarily, bringing large numbers of prostitutes and clients into the formal justice system. When combined with media coverage, the campaigns are intended to deter those arrested from offending again, and to deter potential clients. The campaigns’ deterrent value wears off over time, however. In high-volume arrest campaigns, the chances that police will arrest innocent people increase, unless they take special precautions. Without some follow-up court intervention or measures to change the environment, intensive enforcement campaigns only temporarily interrupt street prostitution, or move it elsewhere; they do not shut down a street prostitution market entirely.