This video reminds me of the presentation from Oakland Police Department and the Berkeley Police Department. (Check out the link here.) This video from Ottawa Police Department and it is referring to different ways the PD deals with about 250 sex workers. They have different approaches from focusing on high-risk calls to how to prevent youth from ending up in such path.
One of the approached that the Ottawa PD is taking is collaboration with S.T.O.R.M. (Sex Trade Outreach Mobile) team. STORM is to help youth, essentially STORM works more as restorative program. STORM works to help youth who have already been working on the streets. It is similar to what Oakland PD was talking about that needs to be a connection between the police department and the youth and social services in order for youth to be able to get away from the street crime. However, STORM does not take into account the dangers of being at the site and youth sex workers do not want to be made out for going to snitch because as the Oakland PD told us that it is dangerous after the fact for the victims.
The Ottawa Police Department also talked about the different strategies of reducing the number of sex crimes by having educational workshop to the youth, as well as the parents. This takes more of a Berkeley Police Department take on it. The BPD talked about their job being service based and to respond to resident’s request of service. The Ottawa Police officer mentioned how they respond to these calls, and how many calls are given to officers who have repeatively respond to such calls. If Ottawa police department would only have service based policing it would take longer and more force to reduce and eliminate sex workers on the streets. Ideally, I think Ottawa PD is a mixture of both of the presentations we had in our lecture.
I can’t help but connect this merge to El Dorado because the county needs to have a balance of both to successfully reduce and eliminate crimes like these. Sex youth workers are at a rise in many cities across the U.S. and Ottawa Police department can be seen as one model to incorporate different styles of policing to help reduce street crimes and improve the well being of youth and the cities themselves. Furthermore, I believe that Ottawa PD can be seen as a working model and ideally a police department can incorporate those policing ways and in corporation with the social workers and schools and youth programs and centers to be able to produce a comprehensive way of better serving the community and keeping crimes off the street.
I appreciate the approach that S.T.O.R.M. is taking by acknowledging that prostitution is inevitable, and attempting to improve the quality of life of these young girls. They understand that combatting the sex trade is not their job, its the job of the police. The Ottawa PD is also taking an intelligent approach to addressing the issue by recognizing their dual roles of enforcement and public safety. They are actively seeking alternatives to arrest, such as exploring educational tools and issuing warnings before street sweeps. It is naive to think that arresting these girls will end prostitution. If you take one girl off the street, there will be a new one in her place tomorrow. I believe this is why the Ottawa PD focuses less resources on actual enforcement/ apprehension, and is searching for different ways of alleviating the problem.
ReplyDeleteBuilding relationships with these sex workers is one promising approach that Ottawa PD seems to be taking. Active cooperation and communication between the police and these girls is key to ensuring their safety and well-being. If the police can build a trust and understanding with these sex workers, the girls will be more inclined to report of instances of violence, which could potentially remove serious threats from the street.
I respect the OPD's prioritization of public safety to enforcement, because ultimately, temporarily incapacitating these girls will do nothing to solve the problem, and only ensuring their safety (ideally coupled with educational resources and some type of social assistance) will have the potential to transition them to a life off the streets.
L Caro
I think that S.T.O.R.M. is taking great strides in the right direction. Prostitution is something that has existed since the beginning of time, and it won't just simply go away. But organizations such as S.T.O.R.M. can make huge differences in the lives of so make sex workers/prostitutes. The Ottawa Police also seem to be taking this matter very seriously. I think that communicating with those girls is essential to helping them. They need to feel comfortable and safe with the police. It's a great approach to do other things besides arrest these girls. I think that arresting them doesn't make the problem go away. It just temporarily deters them, and they return to prostituting themselves after being released. I just think that public policy needs to expand the scope of its laws by helping the girls more and punishing the pimps and the johns a lot more too.
ReplyDeleteY.K.
In Eldorado the small group of sex workers are all local residents and it therefore seems sensible to implement a strategy that will create trusting relationships between the Eldorado police and the sex workers. S.T.O.R.M. aims to provide services to the prostitutes and if there are any they can't personally provide then they seek to put the prostitutes in contact with someone who can. If Eldorado was to adopt a strategy like this with the local police who could help get the sex workers in contact with any services they need then it may help to remove the problem of the sex workers and help to save the women.
ReplyDeleteRD
As Rachel said in the above comment, Eldorado has a small group of street sex workers and they are all local residents. This means that they are part of the community. Since they "do business near the area where the public park and commercial district converge," there's is a possibility that the police would simply try to banish them as commercial gentrification is occurring. I think it'd be wise for the Eldorado PD to look to the Ottawa PD as a model for interacting with the sex workers. In taking on their dual role of both enforcing the law and securing public safety, the Ottawa PD recognizes that they also need to protect the sex workers and that there's a barrier between the police and the sex workers. Instead of trying to arrest sex workers, they want to focus on education and social services. They also make the effort to protect them from a serial murderer. Their effort to help sex workers becomes so apparent that one of the sex workers in the article would actually say, "There are a couple of cops out there who are really, really reaching out and really helping us out." And as Leslye pointed out, the Ottawa PD really strikes a good balance of policing between what OPD and BPD in dealing with Ottawa's situations and problems. However, I can't help but feel like the Eldorado PD's tactics will head toward banishment as they are trying to "modernize" the department, address "new problems," and recruit a new generation of law enforcement officers. Would the new officers be overwhelmed by the city's gentrification process and the demands of the City Council, and in doing so, take the easy way out and not try to address underlying problems by using banishment? Would they actually take the effort to establish trust with street sex workers? I am not sure...
ReplyDeleteWAC
What I admire about the Ottawa Police Department's approach is that they realize and openly acknowledge the barrier between the police and sex workers. While the Berkeley PD said that one of the most important jobs for a police officer is to have empathy when speaking to victims, I think this video really shows that sometimes having someone from the outside come in can make an even bigger difference. I think the STORM really connects to some of the solutions to prostitution that were discussed in section, like the use of a mentoring system where past women who have gotten out of sex trade help those currently in it. This relieves some of the distrust and fear that sex workers may feel toward the police. Furthermore, the educational and social services offered really help encourage and empower the women to have hope in a better future. If Eldorado were to adopt this approach, I think it should be focused on the homelessness problem rather than the sex workers because of the fact that the homelessness population is rising. It may be a useful and less aggressive strategy for the police to bring in more education and social services to help the homeless find a stable lifestyle. I think the biggest takeaway from this is that a softer, empathetic approach can make just as big a change and impact in a community than aggression and harsher punishments. - ML
ReplyDeleteThis is a side note: In the article the police says that they don’t pick and choose the laws they enforce, but I don’t think that’s true based on everything we’ve learned so far.
ReplyDeleteAbout the general idea: I think it’s great that the police admits that there are barriers between them and the prostitutes working the streets. Admitting that something is wrong is the first step towards fixing it, and it sounds like the Ottawa police department is working for its community. This leads me to a critique of the Berkeley PD, because while they said that they get along with everyone well, when they were asked how they deal with the prostitution problem (or if there is one), they kind of brushed the question off and didn’t do into detail. I also think it’s beneficial to have a community organization come in and help build relationships which would not otherwise exist. It seems like this needs to happen in Eldorado so that instead of further marginalizing those populations through banishment and/or gentrification, they can actually get help if they feel they need it.
-Yana P.
03/06/2012