The Los Angeles Police Department is planning to get officers out of their cars and out on foot patrols in an effort to combat street prostitution in neighborhoods adjacent to Sepulveda Boulevard.
The increased patrols could put as many as 20 additional officers in the area on foot and in squad cars. The crackdown is part of a joint effort by police and the city attorney’s office in response to complaints from residents who say they are witnessing sex acts on their streets, said Tamar Galatzan, a deputy city attorney.
"Officers patroling Sepulveda on foot will concentrate on the area from Victory Boulevard to Rinaldi Street on different days at different times," said Senior Lead Officer Jose Verdin.
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The increased patrols are focused on Sepulveda, as opposed to residential streets, because that is where the johns are picking up the prostitutes, Verdin said. They are then reportedly driving into the neighborhoods where residents have found condoms on their lawns and witnessed sex acts.
Police, who plan to start the push to decrease the incidents in early June, are waiting for the city attorney’s office to flesh out a new method for handling prosecutions. When alleged prostitutes and their customers are convicted they will be prohibited from frequenting the area where they were arrested. If they are convicted a second time in the same area, the penalties will be steeper.
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"They would not even have to be engaging in illegal activity for us to arrest them if they returned to the area," said Verdin.
The plan is to make it part of a condition for release when they are sentenced that they not return to Sepulveda Boulevard, he added.
Galatzan said this method of prosecution was used by the city attorney’s office in the early 1990s. She is researching what was done then to help guide current efforts.
