Ending Sex Trafficking in Oakland

Transcription

Ending Sex Trafficking in
Oakland
Picture source: Brett Myers/Youth Radio.
Ryan Hunter, MPP
May 2011
Produced for the East Bay Asian Youth Center
Oakland, California
The author conducted this study as part of the program of professional education
at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley. This
paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the course requirements for the Master
of Public Policy degree. The judgments and conclusions are solely those of the
author, and are not necessarily endorsed by the Goldman School of Public Policy,
by the University of California, or by any other agency.
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to the many people who granted me interviews or otherwise gave input into the
production of this report, including staff from the Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council,
the Alameda County District Attorney’s office HEAT Watch program, CALICO, Banteay Srei, Covenant
House, the Sexually Exploited Minors Network, Oakland City Councilwoman Libby Schaaf, the San Diego
County Office of Education, Oakland Unified School District Staff, and the Child Exploitation Unit and
Problem Solving Officers in the Oakland Police Department. Thanks are also due to my classmates and
faculty advisor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, who provided input on innumerable drafts of this
work. This report would not exist without the efforts of the community organizers and concerned local
residents in the Neighborhood Organizing Committee at the East Bay Asian Youth Center, who came
together to demand better for their neighborhood and their city. Finally, we all owe thanks to the police
officers, lawyers, case workers, advocates, probation officers, researchers, and concerned community
members whose combined efforts over the past decade have saved many women and girls from sexual
exploitation and whose perseverance will see Oakland through the challenges ahead.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 2
Glossary of Acronyms ................................................................................................................................... 6
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 7
Recommendations .................................................................................................................................... 7
Priority 1: Focus and coordinate the city’s efforts to fight demand for commercial sex, including
john school and increased reverse sting operations ............................................................................ 7
Priority 2: Increase resources to prevent youth entry into prostitution .............................................. 8
Priority 3: Improve community policing practices ................................................................................ 8
Additional next steps ............................................................................................................................ 9
Oakland’s daughters are for sale ................................................................................................................ 10
Sexual exploitation destroys our communities ...................................................................................... 10
Sexual exploitation destroys women and girls ....................................................................................... 11
The numbers: Commercial sexual exploitation in Oakland .................................................................... 12
The vision: Oakland without sexual exploitation .................................................................................... 15
Understanding the market for commercial sex .......................................................................................... 16
Solutions for Oakland.................................................................................................................................. 18
Recommendations .................................................................................................................................. 18
Priority 1: Focus and coordinate the city’s efforts to fight demand for commercial sex, including
john school and increased reverse sting operations .......................................................................... 19
Priority 2: Increase resources to prevent youth entry into prostitution ............................................ 19
Priority 3: Improve community policing practices .............................................................................. 20
Additional next steps .......................................................................................................................... 20
Demand – The Johns ................................................................................................................................... 22
What Oakland is doing: Demand ............................................................................................................ 23
Beat Feet ............................................................................................................................................. 23
SOAP Orders ........................................................................................................................................ 23
Dear John letters ................................................................................................................................. 23
Reverse sting operations..................................................................................................................... 23
Operation Shame (defunct) ................................................................................................................ 24
Recommendations: Demand .................................................................................................................. 24
1. Launch a task force on demand and a publicity campaign ............................................................. 24
2. Begin offering john school as a condition of probation .................................................................. 26
3. Increase reverse sting operations ................................................................................................... 27
4. Implement new shaming strategies that do not violate civil rights................................................ 29
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5. Provide more information to Spanish-speaking johns.................................................................... 31
6. Express Oakland’s support for the ACCESS Act ............................................................................... 32
Supply – The Girls........................................................................................................................................ 33
What Oakland is doing: Supply ............................................................................................................... 34
AB499: The Sexually Exploited Minors Pilot Program ........................................................................ 34
The Sexually Exploited Minors Network ............................................................................................. 34
Family Justice Center .......................................................................................................................... 38
HEAT Watch victim stabilization efforts ............................................................................................. 38
BAWAR advocacy ................................................................................................................................ 39
Measure Y funding .............................................................................................................................. 39
Safe house (defunct) ........................................................................................................................... 39
Recommendations: Supply ..................................................................................................................... 40
1. Engage schools in prevention and early intervention and include OUSD in local coalitions.......... 40
2. Target prevention support for the Latino community .................................................................... 41
3. Move more fully toward treating commercially sexually exploited girls as victims ....................... 42
Distribution – The Pimps ............................................................................................................................. 44
What Oakland is doing: Distribution ....................................................................................................... 44
District Attorney prosecution efforts .................................................................................................. 44
OPD efforts.......................................................................................................................................... 44
Prosecution through City Attorney’s office ........................................................................................ 45
AB 17: The Human Trafficking Accountability Act .............................................................................. 45
Recommendations: Distribution ............................................................................................................. 45
1. Express the City’s support for AB 90 ............................................................................................... 45
Environment – The Track ............................................................................................................................ 46
What Oakland is doing: Environment ..................................................................................................... 47
Enforcing nuisance ordinances against motels. .................................................................................. 47
OPD Community Policing efforts ........................................................................................................ 48
HEAT Watch Neighborhood Program and Bay Area HEAT Coalition .................................................. 48
Recommendations: Environment ........................................................................................................... 49
1. Ensure that community policing efforts actively engage all community members in two-way
dialogue............................................................................................................................................... 49
2. Reinstitute the Beat Health Unit in the Oakland Police Department ............................................. 51
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 53
Appendix A: Example Dear John letter and community reporting form .................................................... 54
Appendix B: Responses to Disorder at Budget Motels ............................................................................... 56
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Appendix C: Predicting the movement of street prostitution hotspots ..................................................... 64
Police enforcement displaces street prostitution................................................................................... 64
Methodology........................................................................................................................................... 64
Obtaining and preparing data ............................................................................................................. 64
Experimental and control groups ....................................................................................................... 65
Associating demographic data with points ......................................................................................... 67
Means-comparison tests..................................................................................................................... 68
Opportunities and constraints ............................................................................................................ 68
Limitations of the Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 71
Conclusions and Discussion .................................................................................................................... 71
Maps…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………72
Endnotes ..................................................................................................................................................... 76
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Glossary of Acronyms
ACDAO – Alameda County District Attorney’s Office
BAHC – Bay Area HEAT (Human Exploitation and Trafficking) Coalition, the regional collaboration
coordinated by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office
BAWAR – Bay Area Women Against Rape
CSEC – commercially sexually exploited child(ren) or the commercial sexual exploitation of children
EBAYC – East Bay Asian Youth Center
FJC – Family Justice Center
FOPP – First Offender Prostitution Program, San Francisco’s john school
HEAT Watch – Human Exploitation and Trafficking Watch, a local collaboration coordinated by the
Alameda County District Attorney’s office
ICPC – Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council
MISSSEY – Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth
NCPC – Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, the City of Oakland’s designated points of community
input for community policing
NET – Neighborhood Enforcement Team, an OPD unit associated with community policing
OPD - Oakland Police Department
OUSD – Oakland Unified School District
PSO – Problem-solving officer(s), OPD’s community policing officers
SACEY/SPA – Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth Program / Safe Place Alternative
SEM – sexually exploited minor
SOAP—Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution order, sometimes given to johns as a condition of probation
VOC – Victims of Crime funding
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Executive Summary
For the past decade, local government entities, non-profit service providers, and community members
have been working to end the commercial sex trade in Oakland. A commitment to the vigorous arrest
and prosecution of pimps and traffickers, the development of a continuum of care for sexually exploited
women and girls, the engagement of community advocates, and state level policymaking have all made
Oakland and Alameda County leaders for other Bay Area communities in fighting trafficking.
Sadly while significant progress has been made towards a systemic approach to fighting human
trafficking, the sex trade still thrives in our city. At any time of the day or night, women’s bodies are for
sale on Oakland streets and on the internet.
Born from the concerns of community members at the East Bay Asian Youth Center, this report seeks to
address a twofold problem: the negative effects that visible street prostitution has on Oakland
communities and the system of commercial sexual exploitation that traps women and girls.
To reach the recommendations in this document, I conducted a thorough examination of the traffickingrelated practices and policies of local agencies, including interviews with stakeholders in government,
nonprofits, and the community, as well as a review of documented anti-trafficking efforts over the last
decade. I also conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature and the practices of other
municipalities.
I identified several next steps for Oakland, including strategic gaps in the provision of services and
innovative programs happening in other communities that could be effectively replicated in Oakland.
Those next steps are outlined below. In addition, this report represents the first large-scale mapping
since 2003 of past and present efforts to combat sex trafficking in Oakland and Alameda County.
Recommendations
While my report outlines more than a dozen beneficial next steps for Oakland, three steps stand out as
priorities moving forward:

Priority 1: Focus and coordinate the city’s efforts to fight demand for commercial sex,
notably through the creation of a john school program and an increase in reverse sting
operations.

Priority 2: Increase resources to prevent youth entry into commercial sexual
exploitation, especially by training OUSD staff and involving OUSD in regional
collaborations.

Priority 3: Improve community policing practices to build greater trust and
collaboration in immigrant communities where street prostitution is prevalent.
including john school and increased reverse sting operations
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) see
the arrest and prosecution of pimps and traffickers as a primary goal; the Sexually Exploited Minors
(SEM) Network agencies focus primarily on the rescue and care of commercially sexually exploited
women and youth; but no Oakland agency has a primary goal of targeting the men who buy
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commercial sex. A clear focus on johns would be consistent with Alameda County’s view that minors
involved in prostitution are victims rather than criminals.
The national anti-trafficking movement is increasingly recognizing that, as long as demand for
commercial sex exists, prostitution will exist. While some Oakland policies have targeted johns, many
policies have had difficulty in implementation (Beat Feet), been short lived (Operation Shame), or
generally viewed as less important than the prosecution of pimps. A coordinated push on demand
would fill a gap in Oakland’s anti-trafficking strategy.
I identify several steps toward implementing a new anti-demand strategy, but two are key: john school
and an increase in reverse sting operations. Mandatory classes for johns, commonly called john school,
force men to grapple with the impact of their crime on women and girls, and were shown by a US
Department of Justice-commissioned evaluation to significantly reduce recidivism among buyers of
commercial sex. John school and physical arrest are the only two strategies that have been shown to
deter men from buying sex. Further, john school operates at no cost to taxpayers as long as police
maintain a commitment to conducting regular reverse sting operations. The fees paid by arrested johns
subsidize reverse sting operations and provide funding to victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Priority 2: Increase resources to prevent youth entry into prostitution
Many agencies in Oakland provide services to women who want to come out of prostitution: OPD
connects prostituted women and girls with services when they are arrested, and agencies in the SEM
Network provide a continuum of care to sexually exploited women. However, nearly all resources
provided to sexual exploitation victims begin only after an initial contact with the justice system. By
the time a girl becomes connected to an agency like MISSSEY, BAWAR, or the WestCoast Children’s
Clinic, she has typically already been bought and sold on the street, been subjected to many kinds of
sexual abuse by johns and pimps, and has developed a criminal record.
The biggest gap in the continuum of care is in prevention and early intervention. While prevention
work is admittedly difficult, an excellent next step would be the involvement of Oakland’s public
schools. Each woman bought and sold in Oakland – at least those who are local – was once an OUSD
student. Pimps and older prostitutes recruit at district middle and high schools. If teachers and staff at
these schools know the early warning signs of prostitution involvement, some girls could be prevented
from becoming trapped in sexual exploitation and diverted to appropriate supportive resources.
In the mold of San Diego County’s efforts, OUSD should train district staff to recognize commercial
sexual exploitation and to know where to send girls for help. Priority should be on school health center
staff, psychologists, and counselors; followed by administrators; and finally middle and high school
classroom teachers.
Additionally, OUSD should have representation on local anti-trafficking collaborations, including HEAT
Watch and the SEM Network. The current omission of local schools from these partnerships results in
missed opportunities for intervention.
Priority 3: Improve community policing practices
A collaborative, trusting relationship between neighborhood residents and OPD is vital to successful
efforts to addressing community concerns, including street prostitution. For example, OPD problemsolving officers (PSOs) are moving to implement a “Dear John letter” strategy, sending warning letters to
the owners of vehicles seen soliciting prostitutes; however, such a program cannot succeed without
participation and two-way feedback from the community.
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While OPD has high commitment toward community policing, and PSOs genuinely desire to help the
community, some on-the-ground realities make it difficult to build meaningful neighborhood
collaboration. The Oakland communities most affected by street prostitution have large immigrant
populations, where language barriers and distrust of law enforcement create high barriers to trust for
OPD PSOs.
Several steps will help communication and trust between PSOs and immigrant communities, notably:

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
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ensuring that community meetings have opportunity for real two-way collaboration between
community members and officers, rather than being a forum for police to report on their
activities,
providing for language needs of immigrant communities, including giving translation at
community meetings and assigning beat officers who have the cultural and linguistic fluency to
operate in ethnic communities,
actively engaging the community not only at Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils, but also
at meetings of established community groups, and
ensuring that beat officers and PSOs stay assigned to the same area for an extended period of
time, to build relationship with community members.
Additional next steps
Besides the priority issues discussed above, my research identified the following additional next steps
for Oakland in combating commercial sexual exploitation:






Expand the treatment of sexually exploited minors as victims. In the long term, move toward
the decriminalization of prostituted minors, in the mold of the original AB 499 legislation.
Implement new shaming strategies that do not violate civil rights. Such strategies could include
billboards, posters, web sites, or newspaper listings, but should only use pictures of second-time
convicted offenders.
Provide information to Spanish-speaking johns. A portion of Oakland’s johns are migrant
workers with limited English skills and a lack of knowledge about American laws about
prostitution. Raleigh, NC significantly reduced the arrest rate of Latinos by providing outreach to
Spanish-speaking communities.
Target prevention support for the Latino community using the Banteay Srei model. The
network of community service providers includes resources specifically for African-American
and Southeast Asian girls, but no agency provides support specifically for Latino ethnic
communities.
Reinstate OPD’s Beat Health Unit. This unit focused on improving problem properties
throughout Oakland. Beat Health won a national award and was found effective in a randomized
experiment in the early ‘00s, but it has not operated since 2005.
Express Oakland’s support for the ACCESS Act, AB 90, and the renewal of the AB 499 pilot
program. These pieces of state legislation would advance anti-trafficking work here in Oakland,
by increasing the fines against johns who solicit minors, making it easier to convict traffickers,
and extending the sunset of the existing AB 499 pilot program.
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Oakland’s daughters are for sale
“While many efforts have been put forth to address this issue, the problem has continued to worsen.
Consequently, Oakland has developed an unfortunate reputation… of being one of the more notable
areas in the western United States for prostitution… due to the ever growing pool of young girls
(victims) who are lured, coerced, and forced into the illegal sex industry.”
– from a 2007 Oakland Police Department report1
For Oakland communities, the thriving sex trafficking industry creates a two-fold problem: For one,
visible street prostitution is a blight on communities, making neighbors feel unsafe and depressing local
development. Even more upsetting is the effect of the industry on women and girls who are frequently
psychologically coerced or forced – through violence or economic necessity – to subject themselves to a
lifestyle of virtual slavery and continuous abuse.
Sexual exploitation destroys our communities
Dan lives in East Oakland in a residential area two blocks away from International Boulevard.
Each day, Dan crosses International to drop off his son, a second grader at Think College Now
Elementary. Prostituted women frequently walk up and down the sidewalk in front of the school
and have even come into the school to use the restroom. One morning while dropping his son off,
Dan waited at the crosswalk next to a woman dressed only in transparent lace. Dan knows that
many women on the street are exploited, but he nevertheless does not want his son exposed to
prostitution at school. Some parents of pre-teen girls in Dan’s community have had pimps or
prostitutes try to recruit their daughters, and they fear for their children’s safety.
In the fall of 2010, the East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) conducted a listening campaign among
parents in the San Antonio and Eastlake neighborhoods in East Oakland. When EBAYC asked parents
what they dislike about their neighborhood, the second most frequently cited concern was prostitution.
Many people said the neighborhood was not a safe place to raise children, and the most cited reasons
included the recruitment of children into criminal activity and that “it is normal here for kids to see
things they shouldn’t.” 2 These two neighborhoods are bisected by International Boulevard, the biggest
hot spot for street prostitution in Oakland.
Oakland neighbors in high-prostitution areas often feel unsafe. Business owners who try to make
positive change have been threatened by pimps. OPD sites it as common practice for pimps to recruit
girls from middle and high schools.3 Parents rightly fear for their children’s safety.
Prostitution takes a financial toll on Oakland as well. Areas of high prostitution activity have difficulty
attracting and retaining successful businesses, making economic development difficult. Enforcement is
also expensive. While specific data for Oakland is not available, the average major city in America spends
about $12 million each year combating prostitution.4
A recent literature review found a variety of negative impacts of street prostitution on communities:
Prostitution is associated with higher crime rates and leads to public safety problems like condoms and
syringes being discarded on the street. Surveys of business owners and community organizations
frequently indicate that prostitution negatively affects business activity and lowers community quality of
life. Research on other adult-oriented businesses (such as strip clubs) indicate that the presence of
commercial sex negatively impacts public safety: crime rates increase when those businesses open and
decrease when they close.5
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Sexual exploitation destroys women and girls
Twelve-year-old Carmen lives in North Oakland. One day after school, she tells her friends that
she’s going to meet some guys. The next evening, one of Carmen’s friends receives a call from
her: Carmen is being held by several men in their 20’s in a San Francisco motel and is being
forced to have sex. After being repeatedly raped in Richmond, San Francisco, and Hayward,
Carmen is turned out unexpectedly by her pimp in the middle of the night. Police find her passed
out in an all-night market. Afraid that she will get in trouble, Carmen tells police she lives at her
pimp’s address, but the police manage to get her home. However Carmen, like many sexually
exploited minors, had a history of sexual abuse in the home as well and repeatedly runs away. In
one two-month disappearance from home, Carmen is frequently spotted selling herself on East
Oakland street corners.6
Prostitution is often portrayed as victimless crime, where men buy sex from women who freely sell their
services in an equal exchange. In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth. Advocates call
prostitution modern-day slavery. Many girls are brought into prostitution as a teen by a “Romeo pimp,”
who poses as a boyfriend, establishes emotional control over an impressionable girl, and then
psychologically coerces them into selling themselves. “Gorilla pimps” may simply grab girls off the street
and force them into the back of a car. These pimps control their girls through threats, intimidation, and
physical violence. Nearly all prostituted women in Oakland are under the control of a pimp, and most
will be raped on a regular basis.
A 2005 OPD report on minors involved in prostitution had this to say: “It is common practice for pimps
to recruit teenage girls from local middle and high schools, and then encourage these prospects out
onto the street through a combination of smooth talk, money, clothes, drugs, and for many, a feeling of
being wanted or needed. Many of these young women are frequently the victims of child abuse and/or
sexual abuse and are often living at or below the poverty level.”7
Indeed, many women who enter prostitution have a history of sexual abuse at home. In one study, 70%
of adult women in prostitution said their childhood sexual abuse led to entry into prostitution. Among
survivors of prostitution at one aftercare program in Portland, Oregon, 85% reported a history of incest.8
Prostituted girls lead brutal lives. In a sample of 200 prostituted women in San Francisco, more than
three quarters had entered prostitution as a minor. The median age of entry was below 16, and some
girls had entered by the age of 9.9 Other studies have put the average age of entry at 12 or 13. Other
characteristics of commercially sexually exploited women and girls are equally galling:
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More than two thirds of prostituted men and women suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder,
a rate higher than that of Vietnam War veterans.10
Active prostitutes have a risk of murder 18 times higher than a comparable non-prostituted
person.11
Half of those interviewed in one study had been assaulted by johns; 23% reported that the
assault resulted in a broken bone.12
A Minnesota study revealed that 46% of prostituted women had attempted suicide.13
Rape is frequent among prostituted women. Several studies reported women raped as often as
once per week (by pimps and johns). In San Francisco, more than two-thirds of prostituted
women and girls reported being raped.14
In short, “the game” of prostitution dooms women to lives of exploitation, misery, and abuse.
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The numbers: Commercial sexual exploitation in Oakland
Oakland and Alameda County lack a comprehensive database of information on sex trafficking, despite
the 2003 recommendation of the Minors in Prostitution Task Force to develop one and the designation
in 2005 of a portion of a three-year $450,000 Department of Justice grant to create a database of
information on sexually exploited minors.15 Efforts to create that system are ongoing and complicated
by the inter-jurisdictional nature of the problem. In the meantime, hard statistics about the extent of
prostitution in Oakland and Alameda County are sparse.i
In 2002, an OPD survey identified 218 minors being prostituted by 155 pimps16; the number of identified
sexually exploited minors (SEMs) had doubled by 2004. At the time, OPD also stated that 70% of
massage parlors in Oakland contained Asian women held hostage in forced prostitution. 17 In 2006,
OPD’s Child Exploitation Unit conducted 47 operations that resulted in 660 arrests (of girls, johns, and
pimps), including 47 arrests related to felonies.18
In late 2010, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) began conducting Safety Net
meetings to collaboratively review SEM cases. As of January 13, 2011, ACDAO has reviewed 57 cases of
commercial sexual exploitation of children. The girls involved had a median age of 17 years old, but were
as young as 12 in some cases. Most had significant previous involvement in the dependency and
delinquency systems. STD infection and pregnancy were common among SEMs in Safety Net cases.19
A significant chunk of Oakland’s sex market is home-grown. Seventy percent of the exploited minors in
ACDAO’s Safety Net reviews were Alameda County residents.20 ii Of more than 200 prostituted girls
screened by the WestCoast Children’s Clinic’s Screening, Stabilization, and Transition program in
Oakland, only five were born outside the US.
Of the girls screened in the WestCoast study:
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53% once lived in a group home
43% reported a history of physical or sexual assault
25% were clinically depressed
52% had serious drug abuse problems.
Screeners also noted that, because these estimates required voluntary self-disclosure from girls, the
data likely underestimate rates of psychological distress. 21 These data are not drawn from a
representative sample and likely over-represent women involved in prostitution on the street (as
opposed to “indoor” prostitution solicited online or in massage parlors). The racial breakdown below
also reflects these WestCoast data.
i
Even so, Oakland and Alameda County may be doing better than most. A survey of 31 Bay Area law enforcement
agencies conducted by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office found that 87% of agencies do not collect any
data specific to the commercial sexual exploitation of children. (Source: Bay Area HEAT Coalition meeting, 28 April
2011.)
ii
The other 30% of cases came largely from Contra Costa and Sacramento counties. They also included girls from
other Bay Area counties and from as far away as Los Angeles.
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iii
Although Oakland has made great strides in setting up systems to combat commercial sexual
exploitation and to provide services to women coming out of prostitution, sex can still be bought and
sold throughout Oakland, on the street, in massage parlors, and online. Girls are still recruited into sex
work from Oakland schools. Existing efforts to combat sex trafficking have failed to make a huge dent in
the number of women sold each day in Oakland.
The map on the following page shows prostitution-related incidents reported to OPD between Dec. 25,
2010 and April 18, 2011. Redness shows the relative density of prostitution activity in an area. The map
shows that International Boulevard (E 14th St.) is the most active prostitution area in the city, with two
distinct clusters of incidents (one between 7th Ave. and Fruitvale and another just east of High Street) .
West Oakland also receives prostitution reports; San Pablo Ave. is known as a secondary geographic
center for street prostitution.
iii
WestCoast Children’s Clinic, data from screenings of MISSSEY participants. Data represents the racial
categorization collected by WestCoast. The girls screened by WestCoast are not a random sample of the SEM
population in Oakland. In particular, the screened girls came largely from street prostitution, and as such likely
over represent the black population in prostitution. Sexually exploited Asian and Latina youth in Oakland tend to
work indoors.
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Prostitution reports to OPD, with relative density
Points reflect prostitution incidents reported to OPD between December 25, 2010 and April 18, 2011. Darker red
areas reflect a greater density of prostitution activity in an area. OPD crime data is given to the nearest
intersection to protect the identities of victims. Because these data reflect OPD crime reports, they may overrepresent areas that OPD has targeted for enforcement.
Data sources: Prostitution data from Oakland Crime Watch, elevation data from USGS Seamless Server, and
Oakland street and highway data from UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture. Mapping by Ryan
Hunter.
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The vision: Oakland without sexual exploitation
In the future, our vision is that Oakland communities are places where parents feel safe raising their
children. In these neighborhoods, young girls can walk home from school or sit at the bus stop without
fear, and schools are not magnets for violence, but shelters from it. No girl in Oakland has her childhood
stolen from her.
Women and girls who become ensnared in the sex trade will have a way out. Comprehensive services
will address victims’ psychological trauma, their medical needs, and the financial and social factors that
resulted in sexual exploitation. The cycle of victimization, arrest, and further institutionalization will end.
Prostitution will never seem like the only choice: young women will have options for good education
and employment, regardless of family background or income level.
Pimps and traffickers as well as johns will have to watch their backs. Vigorous enforcement will make
pimping a dangerous and unprofitable business, and prosecutors will ensure that those who perpetrate
sexual abuse and slavery are brought to justice. Johns find Oakland an inhospitable place to buy sex.
International Boulevard will be a center of commerce and a source of community pride. Business owners
on International work together with community members to make the neighborhood clean and
attractive. Partnerships between the police department, prosecutors, service providers, business
owners, and community members ensure effective and innovative solutions to new problems as they
arise.
Finally, we hope that Oakland is held up as a national model for successful combating commercial sexual
exploitation .
The goal of this report is to outline clear next steps that civic leaders can take to move Oakland
toward this vision. Implementing the recommendations in the following pages will advance the fight
against commercial sexual exploitation in our city.
A note: Although I frame this report as recommendations for Oakland, the information herein spans
many layers of local government, including Alameda County and Oakland Unified School District, not just
Oakland City Government.
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Understanding the market for commercial sex
Commercial sex exists in a market economy, subject to forces of supply and demand. We can conceive
of four broad components of the market that could be targeted for intervention22:

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The demand side of the market consists of the men who pay for commercial sex acts, or
“johns.” These johns may solicit girls directly on the street, in massage parlors and other
businesses, or over the internet, as well as indirectly through the consumption of pornography
produced from trafficking victims.
The supply side of the market consists of the women and girls whose bodies are sold for sex.
Again, commercially sexually exploited women and girls may be solicited for sex either on the
street or “indoors”.
The distribution network consists of pimps and human traffickers. While some women may sell
their services directly, most prostitution is mediated by a trafficker. These traffickers procure
women and girls, often using physical or psychological coercion, and then provide them for sale.
Pimps treat their girls as assets, guarding them against other pimps, keeping them away from
law enforcement, and organizing their sale online.
The surrounding environment provides a context for the market for sex. Some interventions do
not target demand, supply, or distribution directly, but instead aim to make the environment a
less convenient place to conduct commercial sex transactions.
The chart below demonstrates that the sex trafficking market is driven by demand, with johns soliciting
the services of prostituted women either directly or through a pimp as an intermediary.
Source: Abt Associates Inc.
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Historically, US anti-prostitution efforts have focused on supply – that is, enforcement of solicitation
laws against street prostitutes. Street walking women are the most visible part of the market and the
easiest target for law enforcement. However, simply targeting women misses the deeper roots of the
problem: without services to break the cycle of abuse and exploitation in their lives, women picked up
for solicitation are often back out on the street with their pimp within a few hours, and the underlying
structure of the market has not been disrupted. At worst, women arrested on the street are punished
with fines; in order to pay the fines, women turn again to prostitution.
A comprehensive approach to ending sex trafficking requires recognizing the complexity of the problem:
Commercial sex workers are rarely in that role by choice; getting these women and girls off the streets
for good requires specialized victim services. Street prostitution is only a portion of the whole market for
sex; an increasing proportion of sexual transactions take are arranged online. Sex traffickers exercise
brutal and violent control over their business, and prosecutors face extreme difficulty getting
convictions more stringent than misdemeanor pimping and pandering.
There is no silver bullet for prostitution. To disrupt the market for sex trafficking, multiple levels of civic
organization must work in tandem, including law enforcement, prosecutors, nonprofit and government
social service providers, and members of the community. Strategies targeting demand, supply,
distribution, and the environment must be implemented simultaneously.
Because this report grew out of the concerns of East Oakland residents about the effects of visible street
prostitution along International Boulevard on their quality of life, some of the solutions described here
are geared specifically toward the elimination of street, or outdoor, prostitution. Wherever possible, I
have identified solutions that will undermine the entire sex trafficking industry in Oakland, both indoor
and outdoor.
17 | P a g e
Solutions for Oakland
Oakland is not a newcomer to anti-trafficking work. Agencies in Oakland have been actively and
creatively engaged in combating commercial sexual exploitation for the past decade. To understand how
Oakland can continue to improve, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of what Oakland is
doing and has attempted in the past. This report gives an outline of Oakland’s previous efforts to
combat prostitution by intervening with girls, johns, pimps, and the environment. I believe this
description of local anti-prostitution efforts to be the most comprehensive description of city-wide
efforts since the 2003 Alameda County Minors in Prostitution Report; however, the information is still
far from exhaustive.
Additionally, this report outlines how local agencies can advance the work that has already been done.
In choosing policy recommendations, I looked for polices that were:




Evidence-based. Unfortunately, very little empirical evidence exists about anti-prostitution
strategies, either to confirm the effectiveness or demonstrate the ineffectiveness of programs.
As one researcher states, “This is a recurring theme in research into prostitution – the
consequences of policy change are all too often hidden or practically unmeasurable.”23 A few
strategies, however, do have research-based evidence of effectiveness.
Systemic. Certain strategies may have a short-term impact or an impact in a particular
neighborhood but ultimately make little headway in undermining the whole system of
commercial sex in Oakland. I looked for true systemic strategies that were likely to strike at the
roots of the market for sex.
Politically and financially feasible. Historic budget shortfalls are leading to a crisis in Oakland.
The city recently laid off many police officers. While gains could undoubtedly be made by hiring
more investigators to go after pimps or by providing greater funds to community programs,
most of the solutions I outline below can be implemented without large infusions of cash
beyond the funding sources already available.
Compassionate towards victims of sexual exploitation. Alameda County aims to treat minors
involved in prostitution as victims rather than criminals. Policies that focus on punitive measures
or “crackdowns” on prostituted women generally prove ineffective. I looked for policies that
recognize pimps and johns as the driving forces of the market for sex and provide avenues for
prostituted women to escape exploitation.
A caveat: Implementing strategies that make it more difficult for pimps or johns to buy and sell sex on
the street (for example, the “Dear John” letters described below) will tend to reduce the size of the
overall market for sex, but will also drive some portion of the outdoor market indoors. Whether
operating indoors or outdoors leads to a better quality of life for the women involved is a matter of
some debate among experts in the field. However, communities certainly benefit when prostitution
happens in a less visible way. Therefore, I have included solutions that may drive some sex trafficking
indoors but are likely to decrease the overall size of the market and the visibility of prostitution in
Oakland communities.
Recommendations
I have identified 12 next step recommendations for Oakland to move forward in the fight against
commercial sexual exploitation. The following pages outline policies that will curb johns’ demand for
commercial sex, reduce the supply of commercially sexually exploited women, penalize the pimps who
distribute prostituted women, and make the environment in Oakland less conducive to prostitution.
18 | P a g e
Three of the recommendations should be particular priorities for Oakland:
including john school and increased reverse sting operations
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) see
the arrest and prosecution of pimps and traffickers as a primary goal; the Sexually Exploited Minors
(SEM) Network agencies focus primarily on the rescue and care of commercially sexually exploited
women and youth; but no Oakland agency has a primary goal of targeting the men who buy
commercial sex. A clear focus on johns would be consistent with Alameda County’s view that minors
involved in prostitution are victims rather than criminals.
The national anti-trafficking movement is increasingly recognizing that, as long as demand for
commercial sex exists, prostitution will exist. While some Oakland policies have targeted johns, many
policies have had difficulty in implementation (Beat Feet), been short lived (Operation Shame), or
generally viewed as less important than the prosecution of pimps. A coordinated push on demand
would fill a gap in Oakland’s anti-trafficking strategy.
I identify several steps toward implementing a new anti-demand strategy, but two are key: john school
and an increase in reverse sting operations. Mandatory classes for johns, commonly called john school,
force men to grapple with the impact of their crime on women and girls, and were shown by a US
Department of Justice-commissioned evaluation to significantly reduce recidivism among buyers of
commercial sex. John school and physical arrest are the only two strategies that have been shown to
deter men from buying sex. Further, john school operates at no cost to taxpayers as long as police
maintain a commitment to conducting regular reverse sting operations. The fees paid by arrested johns
subsidize reverse sting operations and provide funding to victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Priority 2: Increase resources to prevent youth entry into prostitution
Many agencies in Oakland provide services to women who want to come out of prostitution: OPD
connects prostituted women and girls with services when they are arrested, and agencies in the SEM
Network provide a continuum of care to sexually exploited women. However, nearly all resources
provided to sexual exploitation victims begin only after an initial contact with the justice system. By
the time a girl becomes connected to an agency like MISSSEY, BAWAR, or the WestCoast Children’s
Clinic, she has typically already been bought and sold on the street, been subjected to many kinds of
sexual abuse by johns and pimps, and has developed a criminal record.
The biggest gap in the continuum of care is in prevention and early intervention. While prevention
work is admittedly difficult, an excellent next step would be the involvement of Oakland’s public
schools. Each woman bought and sold in Oakland – at least those who are local – was once an OUSD
student. Pimps and older prostitutes recruit at district middle and high schools. If teachers and staff at
these schools know the early warning signs of prostitution involvement, some girls could be prevented
from becoming trapped in sexual exploitation and diverted to appropriate supportive resources.
In the mold of San Diego County’s efforts, OUSD should train district staff to recognize commercial
sexual exploitation and to know where to send girls for help. Priority should be on school health center
staff, psychologists, and counselors; followed by administrators; and finally middle and high school
classroom teachers.
Additionally, OUSD should have representation on local anti-trafficking collaborations, including HEAT
Watch and the SEM Network. The current omission of local schools from these partnerships results in
missed opportunities for intervention.
19 | P a g e
Priority 3: Improve
community policing
practices
A collaborative, trusting
relationship between
neighborhood residents and
OPD is vital to successful
efforts to addressing
community concerns,
including street prostitution.
For example, OPD problemsolving officers (PSOs) are
moving to implement a “Dear
John letter” strategy, sending
warning letters to the owners
of vehicles seen soliciting
prostitutes; however, such a
program cannot succeed
without participation and twoway feedback from the
community.
Oakland police arrest a girl for suspected prostitution.
Source: Oakland North blog
While OPD has high commitment toward community policing, and PSOs genuinely desire to help the
community, some on-the-ground realities make it difficult to build meaningful neighborhood
collaboration. The Oakland communities most affected by street prostitution have large immigrant
populations, where language barriers and distrust of law enforcement create high barriers to trust for
OPD PSOs.
Several steps will help communication and trust between PSOs and immigrant communities, notably:




ensuring that community meetings have opportunity for real two-way collaboration between
community members and officers, rather than being a forum for police to report on their
activities,
providing for language needs of immigrant communities, including giving translation at
community meetings and assigning beat officers who have the cultural and linguistic fluency to
operate in ethnic communities,
actively engaging the community not only at Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils, but also
at meetings of established community groups, and
ensuring that beat officers and PSOs stay assigned to the same area for an extended period of
time, to build relationship with community members.
Additional next steps
Besides the priority issues discussed above, my research identified the following additional next steps
for Oakland in combating commercial sexual exploitation:

Expand the treatment of sexually exploited minors as victims. In the long term, move toward
the decriminalization of prostituted minors, in the mold of the original AB 499 legislation.
20 | P a g e





Implement new shaming strategies that do not violate civil rights. Such strategies could include
billboards, posters, web sites, or newspaper listings, but should only use pictures of second-time
convicted offenders.
Provide information to Spanish-speaking johns. A portion of Oakland’s johns are migrant
workers with limited English skills and a lack of knowledge about American laws about
prostitution. Raleigh, NC significantly reduced the arrest rate of Latinos by providing outreach to
Spanish-speaking communities.
Target prevention support for the Latino community using the Banteay Srei model. The
network of community service providers includes resources specifically for African-American
and Southeast Asian girls, but no agency provides support specifically for Latino ethnic
communities.
Reinstate OPD’s Beat Health Unit. This unit focused on improving problem properties
throughout Oakland. Beat Health won a national award and was found effective in a randomized
experiment in the early ‘00s, but it has not operated since 2005.
Express Oakland’s support for the ACCESS Act, AB 90, and the renewal of the AB 499 pilot
program. These pieces of state legislation would advance anti-trafficking work here in Oakland,
by increasing the fines against johns who solicit minors, making it easier to convict traffickers,
and extending the sunset of the existing AB 499 pilot program.
21 | P a g e
Demand – The Johns
“Prostitution is there because men are looking for it.”
– a john24
Demand drives the market for commercial sex. As long as men are willing to pay for sex, the market will
find a way to provide it. Historically however, enforcement around prostitution has focused on supply –
the girls. However, most women do not sell sex by choice, but rather because of deep poverty, drug
addiction, or the
physical or
psychological control
of a trafficker.
Increasingly, national
anti-trafficking
advocates are looking
to demand-side
solutions. Recent
research suggests
that between 15%
and 20% of American
men have bought sex
at least once in their
lives. 25 While no
policy change can
entirely eliminate the
demand for
commercial sex,
interventions that
Oakland police trail a car that has just picked up a suspected prostitute.
increase the
likelihood that johns
will be caught,
increase the consequences for purchasing sex, increase johns’ fear of public exposure, and force johns
to come to terms with the reality of their behavior all have the potential to decrease overall demand.
Oakland has implemented a number of interventions that target johns. These interventions, however,
have not been coordinated in a strategic way; some were initiated by OPD, others by the City Council,
and most did not involve significant engagement with the community. Several of them have been shortlived or faced significant barriers to consistent implementation. Further, while OPD and ACDAO focus
primarily on the arrest and prosecution of traffickers and SEM Network agencies focus on providing
services to sexual exploitation victims, no agency has a primary goal of targeting demand for sex.
Moving forward, a task force on demand should take the lead on developing strategies that will deter
johns from buying sex in Oakland. Strategic coordination of the demand-targeting strategies that
currently exist, coupled with the implementation of new strategies like john school, will be key to having
real impact on the demand for commercial sex in Oakland.
22 | P a g e
What Oakland is doing: Demand
Beat Feet
In 1997, the Oakland City Council passed an ordinance that allows the city to declare vehicles used to
solicit a prostitute a public nuisance; those vehicles may then be impounded until the owner pays a fine.
That original statute was overturned by a decision of the California Supreme Court26, but recent state
legislation paved the way for the reimplementation of the Beat Feet Program. Sgt. Jim Saleda, head of
the Vice Unit at OPD, identified Beat Feet as an important tool in deterring johns.27
On March 1, 2011, the City Council passed a new ordinance, introduced by Councilmember Pat
Kernighan, that again allows police to impound johns’ vehicles.28 This new measure, however, applies
only to repeat offenders.
SOAP Orders
Oakland uses a common form of trespass/exclusion ordinance called a Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution
(SOAP) order to keep known offenders out of known prostitution areas. Typically imposed as a condition
of probation, SOAP orders prohibit convicted johns from entering designated zones without a lawful
purpose. International Boulevard and the two blocks surrounding it to the north and south are included
in Oakland’s SOAP zone. Oakland employs SOAP orders against prostitutes and pimps as well as johns. 29
Dear John letters
According to a February 23, 2011 meeting with OPD problem-solving officers, the department will begin
sending warning letters to the owners of cars seen soliciting prostitutes along International Boulevard;30
other cities have also employed such “Dear John letter” programs.31 32 While OPD’s program is still in
development, Dear John programs typically involve police running the license plate numbers of cars
spotted picking up prostitutes or cruising in a prostitution area and sending a form letter to the car’s
owner. The letter contains information such as the consequences of an arrest for solicitation, the health
risks of patronizing prostitutes, or the exploitation and abuse common to prostituted women. Appendix
A contains a sample Dear John reporting form and a sample Dear John letter from police departments in
other jurisdictions.
While no Dear John campaign has been rigorously studied in the US, a British study found that an antiprostitution campaign that prominently featured Dear John letters led to a decrease in street
prostitution in the community.33
Dear John programs cannot succeed without strong partnerships with the community. Police depend on
tips phoned in from neighborhood residents to get license numbers of suspected johns. The Dear John
program depends on good community policing practices to be effective going forward.
Dear John programs have been subject to criticism on civil rights grounds, because the letters imply
involvement in prostitution based solely on an anonymous report; however, other types of phone tip
lines share the same problem.
Reverse sting operations
Police sting operations with female officers posing as prostitutes are the most common anti-demand
measure employed by US law enforcement. Support officers wait nearby and arrest any johns that
proposition the undercover officer or any pimps that might ask the undercover officer to work for them.
23 | P a g e
OPD’s Vice Unit conducts regular reverse sting operations, but the recent cuts in the police force may
result in fewer operations. Reverse stings require the participation of many officers beyond the five
officers in the Vice Unit and therefore can be quite costly. OPD has relatively few female officers, and
the most frequent used decoys may be recognized by some johns. A large number of supporting units
are necessary to both ensure the safety of the undercover female officers and to process the large
number of johns typically picked up in such operations (typically 20 or more).34
Arresting johns is one of only two anti-prostitution strategies that have demonstrated proof of
effectiveness.iv For most crimes, arrest actually increases the likelihood of future recidivism; however a
2006 study found that arresting someone for soliciting a prostitute reduced the likelihood of their future
arrest by about 70%.35
Operation Shame (defunct)
In 2005, an initiative championed by Councilmember Ignacio de La Fuente posted blurred photos of
suspected johns on billboards on International Boulevard. Clear Channel donated billboard space. The
program generated immediate controversy: because the billboards posted photos of men who had been
arrested for solicitation but not necessarily convicted, advocates like the American Civil Liberties Union
protested, and the city withdrew the billboards a few months later amid fears of lawsuits.36
Recommendations: Demand
1. Launch a task force on demand and a publicity campaign
What this strategy is:
Create a new body within the Mayor’s office or the District Attorney’s office with a high-profile role in
reducing the demand for commercial sex. This anti-demand task force would coordinate Oakland’s
current anti-demand work and new initiatives like those discussed below. Following the new push on
demand, the city should launch a media blitz, including press conferences, news stories, bench ads,
billboards, and other channels, that warns potential johns to stay out of Oakland and away from
trafficked women. This strategy addresses demand for commercial sex strongly and strategically, rather
than the piecemeal efforts that have happened to this point.
Membership of this task force would need to include OPD, the Mayor’s office and/or City Council, the
District Attorney’s office, and community service providers, in addition to other stakeholders. Because
these stakeholders already convene in HEAT Watch meetings, that group might be a good place to
locate such a task force.
Who would be involved:



The Mayor or the District Attorney
HEAT Watch
Other organizational stakeholders.
Why it’s a good idea:
In 2003, the Minors in Prostitution Task Force recommended that Oakland launch a new push on
demand37, but since then, no coordinated effort has taken place. Oakland’s current and past efforts to
fight demand have been haphazard, each initiated by different departments within OPD or different
iv
The other is john school. See below.
24 | P a g e
members of the City Council. The efforts of these separate actors would be more effective if
coordinated and publicized together.
Most local agencies involved with combating commercial sexual exploitation have focused on either
caring for SEMs as victims (for example, the SEM Network) or on the prosecution of pimps and
traffickers (for example, OPD). The stated goals of the HEAT Watch program relate directly to these two
areas: “victim safety and trafficker accountability.”38 No local agency has defined demand reduction or
john accountability as a major focus of their work. As the HEAT Watch program builds its working
capacity, it should take on demand directly. If HEAT does not have the capacity to do so, another
working group should fill in the gap.
Publicity would be an important
part of an anti-demand campaign.
Billboards, bench ads, and posters
along International Boulevard
could remind johns that buying sex
often means exploiting trafficked
and abused girls. Importantly,
using press conferences, news
stories, editorials, and other
publicity channels can not only let
johns know that they will be
watched, arrested, fined, or placed
on probation, but also can let
community members know better
how they can respond.
Anti-demand poster from Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Dear
John campaign. The poster was created pro bono by a local
marketing firm.
Source: City of Atlanta, Mayor’s Office
25 | P a g e
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
launched a coordinated campaign
against demand for commercial
sex in the mid-00’s.39 Funded
largely by private donations and
pro bono work from a local PR
firm, Atlanta’s “Dear John”
campaign was among the first
anti-prostitution campaign in the
country to focus on demand for
underage girls. Mayor Franklin was
the public face of a much wider
campaign against sex trafficking
that included state and local
legislation, law enforcement
efforts, and increased survivor
services in the non-profit sector.40
Atlanta won a World Leadership
Award from the World Leadership
Forum in London and was also
recognized for its media efforts by
the Southeast National Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences and the Public Relations Society of America. “Dear John was fueled by a
powerful, female, urban mayor who was willing to expend political capital on this issue.”41 With a similar
female urban mayor with a history of work against sex trafficking, Oakland is poised to effectively launch
a similar effort.
Projected outcome:

A reduction in the overall demand for commercial sex, due to a heightened sense of public
scrutiny and a greater awareness of the consequences of arrest and prosecution.
2. Begin offering john school as a condition of probation
Dozens of cities and counties around the country conduct classes for men arrested for solicitation,
commonly called john schools. Much like traffic school for driving violations, john school is an educationbased intervention for johns. Some municipalities structure their john school as an alternative to
prosecution, while others require john school in conjunction with prosecution for solicitation.
San Francisco’s john school, the First Offender Prostitution Program (FOPP), was among the first such
programs in the country when it was founded in 1995 and has been replicated nationwide. The San
Francisco District Attorney’s Office, San Francisco Police, and Standing Against Global Exploitation
(SAGE) partner to run the john school. When SFPD catches johns in reverse sting operations, first-time
offenders may avoid criminal prosecution by paying a $1,000 fine and attending john school. The oneday classes include information about the legal and health risks of patronizing prostitutes and the brutal
reality of exploitation for trafficked women. Johns that do not reoffend have the charges against them
dropped in one year; if a john does reoffend in that time, he may be prosecuted on both counts.42



Alameda County District Attorney
Oakland Police Department
Community service provider(s)
Besides arresting johns, attendance at john school is the only demand deterrence strategy with a
significant base of evidence. A US Department of Justice-commissioned evaluation found that in the
year San Francisco implemented FOPP (1995), recidivism among johns in the city dropped sharply, and
that drop was sustained for the next ten years. San Diego had similar results when implementing a john
school program in 2000.
The evaluation of the FOPP was conducted over two years and included data from over 150 interviews,
200 john school participant surveys,500 participant evaluations, and the criminal history of over 100,000
men arrested for soliciting prostitutes in California since 1970. Using a time series model that included
the ten years before and the ten years after FOPP implementation, evaluators demonstrated that San
Francisco’s drop in recidivism in 1995 was not related to any statewide trends. In fact, researchers did
not expect to find a statistically significant impact on recidivism from a one-day intervention, but they
were unable to achieve a different result even after conducting several alternative analyses. 43 Other
studies have found that john schools lead to attitude change among participants.44
John schools operate at no cost to taxpayers and can actually subsidize other anti-trafficking activities.
The fees paid by johns more than cover the cost of the class, and overages can be used to pay for police
reverse sting operations and services to women coming out of prostitution. San Francisco’s cost to run
26 | P a g e
the program is about $3,099 per class, which is fully covered with only four participants. The
administrative cost of the class is about $20,000 per year. From 1995-2007, FOPP subsidized over $1
million in SFPD reverse sting operations and nearly $1 million in recovery services for formerly trafficked
women.45 For a john school to remain financially self-sustaining in Oakland, OPD would need to commit
to regularly conducting reverse sting operations.
While some johns have no concern for the consequences of their actions, many have rationalized their
behavior: they tell themselves that buying sex is a mutually beneficial arrangement, that they do needy
women a favor by providing them with income, or that most women enjoy commercial sex. Surveys of
men who buy sex find that the vast majority (96%) believed that prostitution was usually a consenting
act between two adults.46 John school dispels these myths and rationalizations by forcing johns to look
at the realities of life for sexually trafficked women and sexually exploited minors. Because johns say
that “the distance you get from exchanging cash for sex means that afterwards you don’t contemplate
the impact on the prostitute,”47 it should come as no surprise that testimonies from prostitution
survivors typically have the greatest impact on john school participants.
A phone study conducted by the Schapiro Group as a part of Atlanta’s effort to fight demand found that
confronting men with the truth about having sex with minors had a significant chilling effect on johns’
behavior:
The authors concluded that effective deterrence had nothing to do with raising
awareness of the increased penalties advocates have achieved through the State
Legislature, but rather by removing the thin veil of ignorance men seek to maintain
when requesting "very young girls." For about half of men who seek to pay for sex with
very young girls, about half abandoned the transaction through a series of three
incrementally escalating warnings about the underage status of the girl. Most men
would prefer to order sex with a young girl by avoiding any and all direct discussion of
her age.48
Johns gloss over inconvenient truths about prostitution; john school brings those truths to light. For
some johns, taking a cold, hard look at their actions and the system of sexual exploitation they help
create will be enough to change their behavior.
Nationally, john school programs have had remarkable longevity: over 80% of the programs
implemented since 1981 were still active in 2007. John school is an evidence-based strategy with
widespread adoption around the country. Given Oakland and Alameda County’s previous engagement
on issues of sexual trafficking and exploitation, the absence of a john school program is a glaring
omission.
Projected outcomes:


A decrease in recidivism among arrested johns.
A consistent revenue stream to subsidize reverse sting operations and services for girls exiting
commercial sexual exploitation.
3. Increase reverse sting operations
OPD would commit to more regularly conducting reverse sting operations to arrest men attempting to
buy sex.
27 | P a g e

Oakland Police Department, Child Exploitation (Vice) Unit
Oakland has been following a growing consensus that women in prostitution should be regarded as
victims and law enforcement strategies targeting prostitution should concentrate on the customers and
traffickers. Sweden’s 1999 law criminalizing the demand for prostitution but not criminalizing the sale of
sex has been a notable success, gaining support from women’s rights organizations and dramatically
decreasing the incidence of street prostitution.49 50 Increasing enforcement against johns, particularly as
a part of a broader campaign to fight demand for commercial sex, would be consistent with this
understanding of women as victims. Previous increases in OPD reverse sting operations had the side
benefit of catching pimps as well.51
If a regular beat officer were to arrest and book a john for soliciting sex from a prostitute, they would be
taken off the street for several hours. OPD beat officers more often issue written citations to such
men.52 Reverse sting operations are necessary to efficiently arrest large numbers of men who buy
commercial sex.
The research literature has demonstrated that arresting johns reduces the likelihood of future
solicitation. Researchers compared two groups of men who patronized a prostitute in Colorado Springs:
one group was identified through police arrests, while the other group was identified through public
health activities. The two groups were demographically similar. Researchers compared the rates of
rearrest of the first group to rates of arrest of the second group and found that an initial arrest reduced
the likelihood of being arrested again by 70% (compared to no police interaction). This finding was in
stark contrast to previous research showing no specific deterrent effect of arrest for other kinds of
offenses, indicating that the kinds of men who solicit sex may be more motivated by factors such as
shame or reputation than typical criminals are. 53
In Raleigh, NC in 2003, police began to increase their physical arrest of men soliciting prostitutes as a
part of Operation Dragnet; previously, johns had usually been issued a citation and then released.
Physical arrest allowed the johns to be fingerprinted and have their picture placed on local public access
TV. Raleigh PD also found that many officers were unaware that they could charge men with “soliciting
for prostitution” and “loitering for the purpose of prostitution” outside of a sting operation. While the
effect of arresting johns in Raleigh is impossible to measure independently of other Operation Dragnet
efforts, the entire campaign resulted in decreased RPD calls for service related to prostitution,
decreased community complaints, and a low rate of rearrest of johns.54
Enforcement activity needs to happen consistently and follow prostitution wherever it goes. When
arrests are made only in temporary sweeps or in only a few areas of hotbed prostitution activity, “*t+his
results in short-term enforcement and temporal or geographic displacement, and in prostitutes seeking
alternative means to fund drug misuse, usually street crime.”55
A consistent supply of arrested johns, typically from reverse sting operations, is necessary to the
financial solvency of john school programs.
Projected outcome:

An increase in arrests of johns and a corresponding decrease in recidivism rates.
28 | P a g e
4. Implement new shaming strategies that do not violate civil rights
Oakland’s previous attempt to use shaming billboards to deter potential johns is far from unique. Many
cities around the US and the world have used similar public shaming techniques to scare johns away
from soliciting prostitutes. Some cities (including Chicago and Arlington, Texas) post johns’ pictures on
the internet. Other cities (including Detroit, Charlotte, and Fort Worth) show johns’ pictures on public
access television. In England, the names of men arrested for solicitation are posted in the newspaper.56
Most of the civil rights concerns raised over Oakland’s previous Operation Shame campaign could be
allayed by using only the pictures of johns who have been convicted of solicitation.


Alameda County District Attorney’s Office/HEAT Watch
While no comprehensive studies of shaming’s effectiveness have been completed, survey data indicates
that men view exposure as a worse consequence even than arrest. 57 A survey of Scottish men asked
what would deter them from buying sex. Large majorities said they would be deterred by the risk of
public exposure, including being added to a sex offender registry (89%), having their picture on a
billboard (86%), having their picture in the paper (84%), or having a letter sent to their family (77%). 58
The cost of many shaming strategies is low. Establishing a john website would take few police resources.
Clear Channel donated free billboard space for Operation Shame; local newspapers or TV stations may
be willing to make similar in-kind donations.
Opponents of shaming tactics rightly argue that shaming programs fail to rehabilitate johns, stigmatizing
them while making no attempt to help them change their behavior.59 Indeed, the objective of a shaming
campaign is not rehabilitation, but rather a disincentive to begin soliciting women for sex in the first
place. For a shaming program to be effective, potential johns must know about the risk of public shame;
therefore, johns should not be publicly shamed upon their initial offense. Instead, they should be
informed that rearrest for solicitation will result in their picture being publicized. Alternately, first
offenders might also avoid public shaming by enrolling in john school.
The table on the following page summarizes the use of various shaming strategies in cities across the
United States, Canada, and the UK and illustrates the widespread use of public shaming.
Projected outcome:


A reduction in the overall demand for commercial sex, due to a fear of public exposure.
A reduction in recidivism rates among first-time offenders.
29 | P a g e
Cities with “naming and shaming” programs in the US, UK, and Canada60v
City
Anchorage, AK
El Cajon, CA
North County, CA
Riverside, CA
Denver, CO
Orlando, FL
Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL
Frederick, MD
Detroit, MI
Minneapolis, MN
St. Paul, MN
Asheville, NC
Charlotte, NC
Raleigh, NC
Omaha, NE
Rochester, NY
Akron, OH
Dayton, OH
Oklahoma City, OK
Reading, PA
Philadelphia, PA
Nashville, TN
Arlington, TX
Dallas, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Waco, TX
Richmond, VA
Calgary, Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Nanaimo, British Columbia
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Ottawa, Ontario
Vanier, Ontario
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Middlesbrough, England
Hampshire, England
Preston, Lancashire, England
Strathclyde, Scotland
v
Website
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Television
X
X
X
X
X
Newspaper
Dear John Letter
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
This is not a comprehensive list.
vi
Other strategies include publicly releasing client records recovered in a brothel raid (Frederick, MD) and
billboards (Omaha, NE, Rochester, NY)
30 | P a g e
vi
Other
5. Provide more information to Spanish-speaking johns
A targeted outreach campaign to Spanish-speaking communities would provide more information about
the laws and risks associated with patronizing prostitutes.


Community service provider(s)
Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council
While men who buy sex in Oakland come from every race and socioeconomic background and while
little local data exists about the john population, several interviewees said a portion of Oakland’s johns
are Latino immigrant workers. These men may be alone in the Bay Area, separated from their families
for months or years at a time.61 One research analysis found that even native-born johns did not have
accurate knowledge about prostitution laws.62 If johns in general lack knowledge about the law, nonEnglish speaking immigrants likely have even less
knowledge of US solicitation laws. Giving Spanishlanguage information about the illegality and
exploitative nature of prostitution, the legal and
financial consequences of getting caught soliciting
a prostitute, and the risk of disease would deter
some immigrant johns.
Police in Raleigh, NC identified two distinct
populations of johns in the prostitution market:
risk-averse men from suburban communities and
Hispanic men, primarily new immigrants, who
appeared unaware of the risk associated with
prostitution. Follow-up police interviews with
Latino men arrested for solicitation revealed that
many of them did not know it was illegal to pay for
sex. A subsequent Latino educational campaign
included posters, pamphlets, articles in local
newspapers and magazines, and 8-minute public
service announcements on a Spanish language
radio station. Latino health educators and
outreach workers distributed the materials. Arrest
of Latino johns decreased following the outreach
campaign.63
Projected outcome:

A decrease in the number of Spanish-speaking
men soliciting sex.
31 | P a g e
A poster from Raleigh’s Latino outreach
campaign.
Source: Raleigh Police Department.
6. Express Oakland’s support for the ACCESS Act
AB 12, the Abolition of Child Commerce, Exploitation, and Sexual Slavery (ACCESS) Act, would increase
to $25,000 (from $5,000) the fine against an adult convicted of paying for the sexual services of a minor
and would direct those fines to community agencies that help sexually exploited minors obtain
education, counseling, and shelter.64 Oakland Assemblyman Sandré Swanson is sponsoring this
legislation. While the city has limited power to affect state lawmaking, various city and county agencies
could make statements of support for the legislation.



Oakland City Council
Mayor
District Attorney’s office
Under current state law, men who buy sex from children receive a lighter penalty than other child
molesters, even though state law assumes that children are unable to consent to sex. According to
Assemblyman Swanson’s office: “The ACCESS Act will ensure that persons funding the illicit activities of
human traffickers and paying for the sexual services of child sex slaves are treated as severely under the
law as an adult engaging in a non-commercial sex act with a minor.”65
Projected outcome:


An overall decrease in demand for sex with children, due to fear of increased penalties.
Increased revenue for providers of services to SEMs.
32 | P a g e
Supply – The Girls
“We’ve all been molested. Over and over, and raped. We were all molested and sexually abused as
children, don’t you know that? We ran to get away… We were thrown out, thrown away. We’ve been
on the streets since we were 12, 13, 14.”
– a survivor of prostitution66
Effective supply-side solutions to the problem of sex trafficking recognize that most women enter
prostitution either through force, coercion, or manipulation, or because they have run out of other
options. Most have been victims of abuse and trauma. Instead of ramping up enforcement against
women, local law enforcement, policymakers, and service providers should seek to prevent girls from
entering prostitution in the first place and provide clear pathways out of prostitution for women and
girls already in the life, including resources for mental health and their financial and social stabilization.
The barriers to leaving prostitution are many. San Francisco researchers identified many barriers to exit
in their review of the literature: self-destructive behaviors and substance abuse, mental health
problems, effects of childhood trauma, psychological injury from violence, chronic psychological stress,
lack of self-esteem, feelings of shame and guilt, physical health problems, lack of knowledge about
available services, limited systems of support, strained relationships with family, physical or emotional
control from pimps and drug dealers, social isolation, limited job skills or options, lack of basic needs
(i.e., economic self-sufficiency), lack of education, criminal records, inadequate social services, and
societal discrimination and stigma.67
Given the incredible barriers to exit for commercially sexually exploited women and girls, it should come
as no surprise that many women go through cycles of seeking services and then returning to prostitution
before making a clean break from the lifestyle. Both local Oakland practitioners and the research
literature report this pattern. Law enforcement and service providers should learn to recognize this
dynamic and expect it, being encouraged each time a girl returns for services rather than shocked at
each return to the street.
According to research on exiting prostitution, “informal and formal supports are considered critical to
street-level prostitution exit success because of the sheer number and quality of changes necessary for
women to successfully leave the sex industry.” 68 Over the past decade, many agencies in Oakland have
begun to provide such supports to prostituted women, and many girls have left the streets as a result.
Efforts to expand and enhance that care are ongoing. However, at present, most of the services offered
for commercially sexually exploited women and girls in Alameda County kick in only after a girl’s initial
contact with the justice system. A step forward for Oakland would be to increase prevention services
for girls at risk of sexual exploitation, particularly by bringing local schools into the collaboration
around this issue.
Historically, US anti-prostitution efforts have largely focused on the most visible aspect of the
commercial sex market – the prostituted women – and have largely consisted of highly visible police
action – typically large sting operations where many prostituted women are arrested. Failing to
recognize that the women involved in prostitution often have little control over their situation, this
overly simplistic “crackdown” strategy can have disastrous effects. When trafficked women are arrested,
they can wind up with a criminal record that causes them to cling to pimps for protection or with hefty
fines that they can only pay off by continuing to sell themselves.
In 1999, Sweden set an international benchmark for treating prostituted women as victims by
criminalizing the purchase of sex but not criminalizing its sale. In other words, Swedish law recognizes
johns as sexual abusers while not punishing exploited women. As a result of the legislation, the number
33 | P a g e
of prostituted women in Sweden dropped from approximately 2,500 to approximately 1,500 within
three years.69 Norway and Iceland have since passed similar legislation.70
Oakland and Alameda County have taken steps to similarly treat women as victims, but have gotten only
halfway there. Local authorities help build connections to advocacy and social services for girls who are
identified as commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). Fewer resources are available for women
18 and over. However, an effort to identify CSEC as victims of child abuse and preclude them from being
charged as criminals was stymied.
What Oakland is doing: Supply
The systems that come into play when a SEM is taken into custody are extremely complex, and the
programs and policies described below are only a few pieces of the system of juvenile justice and victim
services that are available to sexually exploited women and girls. A complete mapping of police,
probation, and prosecution procedures is beyond the scope of this report.
AB499: The Sexually Exploited Minors Pilot Program
In 2008, the state legislature passed AB 499, the Sexually Exploited Minors Pilot Program for Alameda
County. AB 499 authorizes the District Attorney to create a pilot project on sexually exploited minors.
The pilot project includes the development of new protocols for minors who are victims of commercial
sexual exploitation, training for county employees about commercial sexual exploitation, and a diversion
program to funnel SEMs away from prosecution. 71
The initial version of the AB 499 legislation was far more ambitious, moving towards full
decriminalization of minors involved in prostitution. A draft version of AB 499 defined commercial sexual
exploitation of children to be a form of child abuse, specified that child abuse laws also apply to minors
in prostitution, and made clear that CSEC were not criminals and could not be charged with solicitation.
Under the draft version of AB 499, police could arrest CSEC and place them in protective custody (a
“safety hold”) to get them off the street and into treatment programs. 72
That draft legislation would have created a new way to detain citizens without charging them with a
crime, much like 5150 involuntary psychiatric holds. Because of concerns about violating citizens’ habeas
corpus rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and others objected to the legislation. The result was a
substantially altered law that authorizes the development of protocols and a diversion program
particular to CSEC, but does not decriminalize minors in prostitution. Sandré Swanson’s office calls the
final version of AB 499 a “gateway to treating minors as victims of exploitation” and “the first step
toward a shift in policy.” 73 Even in its amended form, AB 499 has never been funded, and the diversion
program it authorizes is still in the planning stages.
The current pilot program applies only to Alameda County and will sunset on January 1, 2012 if not
renewed by the legislature. AB 799, pending in the current legislative session, would extend the sunset
of the pilot program to January 1, 2017. It makes no other change to the previous legislation.74
The Sexually Exploited Minors Network
Since 2005, the Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council has convened the Sexually
Exploited Minors (SEM) Network, a collaboration of community organizations that provide services to
minor victims of sexual exploitation. 75 Through the efforts of the SEM Network and related service
providers, Oakland provides a continuum of care for girls trying to come out of prostitution.
34 | P a g e
The SEM Network includes the following
agencies that provide services to sexually
exploited youth or technical assistance:















Alameda County Interagency
Children’s Policy Council
Asian Health Services/Banteay Srei
BAYC
CALICO
Covenant House
DreamCatcher Youth Shelter
East Bay Asian Youth Center
MISSSEY
One Love
A Safe Place
Safe Youth
Youth Justice Institute
Youth Radio
UC Cooperative Extension/4-H
JPG Consultants
A number of local government bodies,
including ACDAO and Oakland Human
Services, are represented in the SEM
Network. In recent years, however,
community service providers have made up
most of the network’s activities.
SEM Network agencies provide a range of
services, including advocacy, street outreach,
prevention and intervention training, and
collaborative review of CSEC cases. 76 A few of
the services provided by SEM Network
member agencies are detailed in the sidebar.
In addition, the SEM Network facilitates a
program called the Sexually Abused and
Commercially Exploited Youth and Safe Place
Alternative (SACEY/SPA) that provides
advocacy, clinical case management services,
and a drop-in center for SEMs. A partnership
between several service providers and the
SEM Network, SACEY/SPA is housed at the
Family Justice Center. SACEY/SPA staff work
directly with intake, placement, probation
officers, and juvenile hall staff, including being
present during juvenile court proceedings.
They also provide support to juveniles who
testify in adult court against their exploiters.
35 | P a g e
A SAMPLING OF SEM NETWORK AGENCIES
AND THEIR SERVICES:
MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring,
Supporting, and Serving Sexually
Exploited Youth) provides direct services
to CSEC, including case management,
client advocacy, and recovery resources.
MISSSEY also provides space for the SPA
drop-in center (described below) as well
as training and assistance to other
groups on sexual exploitation issues.
Banteay Srei, a collaboration between
Asian Health Services and the East Bay
Asian Youth Center, is a prevention
program to assist Southeast Asian
women who are engaged in or at risk of
commercial sexual exploitation. The
program was formed after Asian Health
Services found many young Southeast
Asian women coming to their clinic with
prostitution-related health issues and
realized that commercial sex in the
Southeast Asian community was largely
hidden from view. Banteay Srei provides
a supportive, developmental
environment for these young women.
Covenant House, located in Jack London
Square, provides shelter for homeless
youth, including transitional age youth
over 18. In addition to providing housing,
Covenant House staff regularly conduct
mobile outreach, providing information,
food, and transportation to exploited
girls on the street.
The Dream Catcher Youth Shelter
provides free emergency housing for
homeless teens. The center has recently
completed a new building that will house
a 20-60-day residential stabilization
program for CSEC, including six beds set
aside for CSEC.
In many ways, SACEY/SPA provides a service foundation for many of the city and county’s efforts to
serve CSEC. The SEM Network frames many of the network’s services – including MISSSEY programming,
Covenant House Street Outreach, and BAWAR advocacy – as components of the larger SACEY/SPA
model.77 The next page shows a flow chart of SACEY/SPA services.
According to the Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council (ICPC), SACEY/SPA has produced
significant results by stabilizing CSECs and engaging them in services. Of girls in SACEY/SPA services:







75% gain access to stable housing
90% re-enroll in school
80% increase school attendance
60% complete probation
50% are not re-arrested
90% connect with therapeutic mental health services
60% are not re-victimized.78
Currently, the SEM Network is involved in two projects to serve sexually exploited youth:


The SEM Network is developing a CSEC-specific shelter as an extension of their SPA services,
called DreamSPA. DreamSPA would provide on-site services for CSEC.
The SEM Network is also working with the county foster care system to provide better support
for CSEC in the foster system. As Alameda County is moving toward the Family-to-Family
approach to foster case, placing more children in their own families or in foster care wherever
possible rather than in group homes, the SEM Network is developing increased supports for
foster families that care for CSEC.79
36 | P a g e
Flow chart of SACEY/SPA services for SEMs. Source: Alameda County ICPC.
37 | P a g e
Family Justice Center
Founded in 2005 as a one-stop shop for victims of domestic violence, the Family Justice Center (FJC),
located in downtown Oakland, also offers many resources for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
The services provided by the FJC include crisis intervention, legal assistance, medical care, employment
assistance, and law enforcement support. Many agencies serving sexually exploited women and girls,
including several SEM Network agencies, have a presence at the FJC. These include:








Alameda County Probation Department
Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR)
Highland Hospital
SACEY/SPA
MISSSEY
WestCoast Children’s Clinic
Entry into the FJC is restricted to guarantee the safety of victims seeking services. When a victim comes
to seek services at the FJC, a staff member conducts an intake interview and directs them to appropriate
services. FJC staff maintain client confidentiality.80
HEAT Watch victim stabilization efforts
In October 2010, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office (ACDAO) received funding for the HEAT
(Human Exploitation and Trafficking) Watch program. HEAT Watch convenes agencies working to fight
trafficking around the region, including law enforcement, probation officers, community service
providers, mental health providers, and community members. HEAT Watch currently pursues two kinds
of strategies: efforts to more effectively prosecute pimps and traffickers and efforts to help victims of
sexual exploitation. According to ACDAO’s program blueprint, “H.E.A.T. Watch provides law
enforcement and community partners with effective and proven strategies to improve local, regional,
and national capacity to identify, intervene in, investigate, and prosecute CSEC cases while supporting
and protecting youth who are victims and/or are at-risk for [commercial sexual exploitation.”81
HEAT Watch has several new efforts geared specifically toward minor victims of commercial sexual
exploitation:

Safety Net meetings. When OPD brings a girl into Juvenile Hall on solicitation charges, they alert
ACDAO. Each pending SEM case is then discussed at a weekly Safety Net meeting with staff from
law enforcement agencies, service providers (including CALICO, MISSSEY, and the WestCoast
Children’s Clinic), Social Services, Probation, and ACDAO to create individualized victim
assistance plans.82 Safety Net meetings aim to provide support to SEMs regardless of whether or
not they agree to testify against their pimp. Any Alameda County law enforcement agency,
including Hayward and Fremont, can make use of Safety Net services.
 Girls Court. HEAT Watch is also setting up a specialized courtroom at Juvenile Hall. On
Thursdays, two judges with expertise in SEM cases will deal primarily with girls picked up for
solicitation. Eventually, the DA’s office hopes to use Girls Court to funnel SEMs away from
prosecution and into the CSEC Diversion Program.83 ACDAO anticipates Girls Court to begin in
May or June of 2011.84
 CSEC Diversion Program. ACDAO is setting up a 12-week pilot diversion program as an
alternative to detention for minors arrested for prostitution in Alameda County. Authorized by
AB 499, the CSEC Diversion Program will connect participants to counseling, advocacy, and
38 | P a g e
supportive services. Upon successful completion of the program, juveniles will have the charges
against them dropped and the arrest cleared from their record. The pilot program will include
20 Oakland youth, with the goal of replication in other communities in the future.85 Eventually
ACDAO hopes to provide comprehensive aftercare to girls who complete the diversion program.
86
HEAT Watch has an ambitious agenda for creating pathways out of prostitution for SEMs; however
efforts are less than a year old and still in the early stages of implementation.
BAWAR advocacy
Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR) provides advocacy services to SEMs who are picked up for
solicitation. As a first crisis responder for minors involved in prostitution, BAWAR sometimes
accompanies OPD Child Exploitation offices on prostitution sting operations, providing advocacy services
to minors picked up for solicitation at the point of arrest. In other instances, BAWAR advocates interact
with the youth when she is brought into the station.
While the Family Justice Center provides services to girls who come looking for help, BAWAR advocates
work to give crisis support to girls who may not be actively seeking help, but have been pulled off the
street by the justice system. After a SEM is booked by OPD and sent to juvenile hall, a BAWAR advocate
will visit them the next morning, providing food and clothes and additional crisis counseling. In addition,
BAWAR advocates work with probation officers to make plans for each girl and advocate for safe release
for SEMs. In 2009, BAWAR provided advocacy for 163 clients.87
Measure Y funding
Oakland’s violence prevention parcel tax fund, Measure Y, sets aside a pool of funds specifically for
sexually exploited minors. Measure Y provides significant funding to the Alameda County Interagency
Children’s Policy Council (ICPC) which coordinates the SEM Network, as well as MISSSEY, Covenant
House, and BAWAR. SACEY/SPA is also Measure Y-funded.
Measure Y funding also provided a $225,000 challenge grant to build a safe house for girls escaping
prostitution (described in detail below), but the grant was never disbursed. 88
Safe house (defunct)
One of the early goals of the SEM Network was the creation of a safe house, a supportive facility that
could house SEMs who were seeking to exit prostitution, providing them supportive services at an
undisclosed rural location far away from their pimps. The SEM Network believed the safe house would
provide a much-needed secure housing option for SEMs, whose only alternatives might otherwise be
juvenile detention or going back to their pimp. The ICPC web site lists the lack of shelter facilities for
SEMs, an unwillingness of group homes to accept SEMs, and “threats, intimidation, and relapse” in the
recovery process as key reasons to build a safe house. 89
The city of Oakland issued a challenge grant to Alameda County ($225,000 from Measure Y money) to
build the safe house. The county agreed to the match, but the rest of the funding fell through when the
recession hit. Building the safe house is no longer a priority for the SEM Network. The city and county
have both developed partnerships with private safe houses, and Oakland’s SEM population has seemed
to demonstrate a higher-than-normal rate of relapse from those safe houses. 90 While the ICPC is still
committed to providing stable housing for SEMs escaping exploitation, their efforts now focus on
increasing shelter space through the DreamSPA and developing the capacity of foster care to meet the
needs of SEMs (as discussed above).
39 | P a g e
Recommendations: Supply
1. Engage schools in prevention and early intervention and include OUSD in local coalitions
Oakland public schools should require training for appropriate staff that equips them to



be aware of the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children,
recognize early warning signs or risk factors for prostitution involvement, and
direct prostitution-involved or at-risk students to supportive resources.
Additionally, Oakland Unified School District would join and regularly send representatives to local
coalitions fighting sex trafficking, including the SEM Network and the HEAT Coalition.

Oakland Unified School District
Practically every CSEC who was raised in Oakland – and many if not most exploited women on
Oakland’s streets are localvii – was once a student in an OUSD school. Each of those girls had contact
with school staff who, had they known the telltale warning signs of prostitution involvement – truancy,
changes in dress, unusual sources of income, talk of older boyfriends – might have been able to
intervene early in the girl’s abuse.
OUSD is aware of the commercial sexual exploitation of students. In the 2002-2003 school year, the
School Attendance Review Board reviewed 814 cases of truant students – of these, 53 girls and 5 boys
self-reported as involved in prostitution.91 Pimps recruit from Oakland’s middle and high schools, forcing
older prostitutes to bring in new girls. (In 2002, self-identified prostitution-involved OUSD students said
that Castlemont High School and Lowell, Roosevelt, and Calvin Simmons Middle Schools were frequent
recruiting grounds.92) Nearly every exploited girl enters prostitution as a teen or pre-teen.93
OUSD’s work on the issue has included the closure of the Fremont High School campus and coordination
with Campus Security Officers.94 However, OUSD has not been represented in any broader city or
county partnerships on CSEC (i.e., the SEM Network or HEAT Watch). The district’s efforts on CSEC are
not coordinated with the broader local efforts on the issue. Because OUSD schools touch nearly every
exploited child and serve as recruiting grounds for pimps, the district must not be omitted from the
coalitions working to fight trafficking. OUSD needs a seat at the table.
OUSD has developed specific resources for school sites on gang prevention and intervention, including
warning signs of gang involvement and proper responses to gang related incidents.95 OUSD should
develop a similar resource for school sites to help them plan for commercial sexual exploitation
prevention. SEM Network participants have identified this kind of training and plan as a next step for
efforts to fight sex trafficking in Oakland.96
Differing levels of training could be provided to classroom teachers, counselors and psychologists, and
campus security officers. In developing OUSD training around commercial sexual exploitation, priority
should be given to staff at school health centers and school psychologists and counselors. Many
vii
Though comprehensive local data is sparse, the Westcoast Children’s Clinic at least indicates that Oakland’s CSEC
are domestic, with less than 3% foreign-born.
40 | P a g e
sexually exploited youth seek medical care for problems related to sex work, most also develop mental
health problems that may result in a referral to a school psychologist, and school counselors may also
encounter girls who are truant or exhibiting other warning signs of sexual exploitation. These groups of
people especially need to be able to identify sexually exploited youth, provide them treatment, and
refer them to other services as appropriate. School administrators should be a next priority, as they can
disseminate information to their staff and have more availability to attend training than classroom
teachers. Finally, rolling out a training to all middle and high school classroom teachers is an excellent
goal for the next several years.
Other cities are recognizing the important role of schools in combating sex trafficking. The San Diego
County Office of Education regularly conducts trainings on CSEC for teachers, administrators, and
counselors in their constituent school districts. These trainings include representatives from law
enforcement, Child Protective Services, and school districts, as well as documentary clips about the
gravity of the problem. Content includes red flags for prostitution involvement and training on
mandatory reporting. The cost of putting on a training is low – typically less than $25 per participant.97 98
The Seattle School District is also looking to include material on prostituted youth in its violence
prevention curriculum. 99
Grossmont Union High School District in San Diego County is working to roll out this training to every
district staff. 100 GUHSD would be an excellent model for Oakland. MISSSEY believes such trainings to be
a necessary step towards having public institutions that respond to CSEC as victims, and MISSSEY’s
existing CSEC trainings could be easily adapted for the school context.101
Projected outcomes:


A decrease in the number of OUSD students who are drawn into prostitution.
An increase in the number of at-risk or already sexually exploited youth referred to services.
2. Target prevention support for the Latino community
While ethnic-specific resources exist for SEMs in the African-American and Southeast Asian communities
in Oakland, no programs exist to outreach in particular to the Latino community. An outreach program
modeled after Banteay Srei would provide a supportive environment to Latina youth who are at risk of
sexual exploitation.

SEM Network agencies, especially Banteay Srei
According to 2010 Census data, while the city of Oakland saw a 2% decrease in population from 2000 2010, the Latino population of Oakland rose by more than 13% to just under 100,000 people. Latinos
now make up over a quarter of Oakland’s total population.102 However, while agencies dealing with girls
on the street serve largely African-American SEMs and Banteay Srei offers support to Southeast Asian
SEMs and girls at risk of sexual exploitation, no similar program exists for at-risk or exploited Latina
youth.
ICPC notes that the children of immigrants are vulnerable to sexual exploitation for several reasons,
including
41 | P a g e




Parents (particularly refugees) who sometimes suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder and
may be less equipped to help children,
A cultural gap between first-generation parents and American-born children,
A lack of information about victims’ services, and
A fear of authoritarian figures and law enforcement.103
A culturally appropriate program for Latina youth could be tailored to address these vulnerabilities.
While little hard data is available, anecdotal evidence suggests that outdoor prostitution in Oakland is
mainly composed of African-American girls, while Latina and Southeast Asian sex workers in Oakland
work indoors. Girls in street prostitution (predominantly black) are more often picked up in police stings
and therefore have more frequent contact both with the justice system and with community service
providers. Banteay Srei helps meet the needs of Southeast Asian girls who may otherwise slip under the
radar of services. A similar program should be directed toward sexually exploited Latinas, who may be
similarly uninvolved with services due to their relative hiddenness.
Projected outcome:

A decrease in the number of Latina girls who are drawn into commercial sexual exploitation.
3. Move more fully toward treating commercially sexually exploited girls as victims
In the short term, Oakland and Alameda County should express their support for AB799, the renewal of
the sexually exploited minors pilot program in Alameda County, and appropriate agencies should follow
documentation procedures to ensure that SEMs qualify for Victims of Crime (VOC) funds. In the long
term, local authorities should move toward the full decriminalization of sexually exploited women –
especially minors – in favor of increased enforcement on pimps and johns. Doing so likely requires state
legislation similar to the draft version of AB499, which sought to create an involuntary “safety hold” to
get SEMs off the street and connected to services without charging them with a crime.





California State Legislature
Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Probation office
Oakland and Alameda County aspire to treat prostituted girls – at least those under 16 – as victims.
Truly, all the local entities involved in fighting sex trafficking, from OPD to the DA’s office to SEM
Network agencies, recognize that the girls are not the source of sex trafficking problems, and each
organization seeks to get prostituted women and girls connected to services and focus enforcement
efforts on pimps and traffickers.
However, the legal reality is that OPD cannot arrest and detain a prostituted girl without charging her
with a crime. Girls arrested for solicitation must appear before a judge at juvenile hall within 48 hours.
They develop a criminal record. SEMs’ criminal involvement often precludes them from receiving VOC
funds, even if they were kidnapped or raped. In some cases, prostituted women are required to pay
42 | P a g e
restitution. According to the ACDAO, such restitution fees average between $175 and $200 – or about
four tricks’ worth of cash. 104
AB 499 provides for a diversion program as an alternative to prosecution for SEMs, but the state
legislature has never provided any funds for that purpose. Three years later, ACDAO has begun
development of a 12-week diversion program. However, the legislation that prompted the creation of
the program will sunset at the end of 2011 unless reauthorized by the state legislature.
In the short-term, local agencies can take steps to address some of the problems created by the
criminalization of SEMs. Staff in the ACDAO’s HEAT Watch program are already working with OPD to
clearly document SEMs’ status as victims in police reporting, in order to ease the process of obtaining
VOC funds. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the City Council can express their support for
the renewal of the SEM Pilot Program in AB 799, which will extend the sunset of the pilot to 2017. 105
In the long-term, however, local actors should move further to the full treatment of sexually exploited
women as victims. The Swedish model, treating both prostituted adults and minors as victims while
cracking down on pimps and johns, has been extremely effective overseas. Oakland and Alameda
County have an opportunity to be a national leader in the anti-trafficking movement by demonstrating
that decriminalizing the sale of sex (at least by minors) while cracking down on its purchase can
effectively reduce prostitution. Oakland can demonstrate that compassion toward prostitution victims
and a commitment to enforcement are entirely compatible.
According to a study commissioned by the US Department of Justice, “opponents of the Swedish model
in the United States argue that the ability to arrest those alleged to be engaged in prostitution is one of
the only means by which women and girls can be extracted from the control of pimps and traffickers,
thus protected and perhaps linked to support services.”106 Oakland law enforcement has made a similar
argument. In the absence of another method for connecting girls to services, a “safety hold” policy like
that in the draft version of AB 499 would be a necessary step toward the decriminalization of SEMs.
A movement to decriminalize prostituted women is a difficult political sell: It requires careful
interpretation, lest it be confused with condoning prostitution. In California, it requires bipartisan
support in a beleaguered state legislature. Further, it requires the expenditure of political capital, as the
ACLU and other groups are likely to continue their opposition to the safety hold.
However, such a move is a worthy long-term goal. The more that Alameda County can lay the
supporting groundwork of victim services – such as the AB 499 diversion program – the better the
county’s case toward supporting decriminalization of SEMs. A successful program would make Alameda
County an international model in the fight against the sex trade.
A note: Because a move toward full decriminalization would receive great public scrutiny, this strategy
more than any other should be accompanied from the beginning by a rigorous evaluation that could
demonstrate its effectiveness (or lack thereof). The county would need such evidence to fend off legal
challenges, and the presence of an evaluation would help with the replication of the model in other
municipalities.
Projected outcome:

An increase in the proportion of girls successfully referred to services (and therefore who
successfully escape prostitution) and a proper recognition of SEMs as victims.
43 | P a g e
Distribution – The Pimps
“How do I know these kids are worth money? Cause I been living off them for years, that’s how. All
kinds of people will buy them. You wouldn’t believe it. What do I care if they want to throw away a
couple of hundreds of dollars to screw some stupid 13-year-old? I could care less, so long as they give
me their money.”
- Phil, a 46-year-old pimp107
Pimping is big business in Oakland. The girls that a pimp controls can earn $50 or more per trick and turn
as many as ten tricks in a day – a daily profit of as much as $500 per prostituted girl. “A mid-1980’s study
of one pimp who managed 26 prostitutes revealed that he earned $200,000 during one seven-month
period – or approximately $343,000 per year – none of which was reported to the Internal Revenue
Service.”108 In 2009 dollars, this pimp makes about $675,000 per year. With such potential for profit, it
is little wonder that many pimps use physical force or psychological coercion to get more women into
their “stable.”
Historically, weak legal enforcement and small penalties have encouraged entrepreneurs in the
underground economy to take up pimping as a relatively safe way to earn money. In 2005, OPD
reported that “drug dealers are turning to pimping minors, because they are aware that it is harder to
get convicted for pimping than for narcotics in Alameda County.”109 Under California law, pimping is
punishable by 3 to 6 years in state prison (or 3 to 8 years if the prostitute is a minor under the age of
16).
Securing convictions against pimps typically requires prostituted women and girls to agree to testify
against them. Pimps generally coach the women they control to say they are working alone, in order to
avoid prosecution, and women picked up for solicitation fear reprisal from their pimp if they give
information to the police.
What Oakland is doing: Distribution
District Attorney prosecution efforts
The ACDAO, as a part of the HEAT Watch program, has begun charging traffickers with crimes that carry
higher penalties than simply pimping and pandering. The program’s blueprint states that “Vigorously
prosecuting perpetrators, who financially benefit from the trafficking enterprise, and ensuring they
receive the maximum sentence supported by the facts and law, is a key component of H.E.A.T.
Watch.”110
From 2006 through 2010, ACDAO won convictions against 119 of 187 defendants charged with
trafficking-related offenses. In some instances, the DA’s office won life sentences against traffickers by
winning convictions on charges of kidnapping, rape, burglary, extortion, or robbery in addition to
pimping and pandering, which carries a maximum sentence of only a few years.111
OPD efforts
The Oakland Police Department has been fighting sex trafficking for many years, and enforcement
against pimps is a hallmark of that work.
In 2000, OPD created the Child Exploitation Unit, which merged with the Vice Unit in 2004. Since then,
OPD has conducted coordinated vice crime and child prostitution operations. After OPD was awarded a
$450,000 Department of Justice grant in 2005 to combat human trafficking, a revised strategy was put in
place that increased the capacity of the Child Exploitation Unit and made a number of changes: two
44 | P a g e
additional investigators were brought on, a prostitution tip line was established,viii regular beat officers
received training in sexual exploitation, and presentations on the topic were presented at community
meetings and Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils.112 The City Council’s appropriation of DOJ grant
funds for the 2010-11 FY indicates that the $100,000 of funding for that year will be spent primarily on
overtime pay for officers conducting trainings on sex trafficking and exploitation and conducting sting
operations.113
Prosecution through City Attorney’s office
The Oakland City Council passed an ordinance on March 1, introduced by Councilwoman Pat Kernighan,
that updates the city’s laws on prostitution-related offenses in several ways, notably by declaring
prostitution-related offenses local crimes. This move allows misdemeanor prostitution offenses (related
to pimps, johns, or prostitutes) to be prosecuted through the City Attorney’s office rather than requiring
the involvement of the DA or State/Federal officials.114
AB 17: The Human Trafficking Accountability Act
Assemblyman Sandré Swanson introduced the Human Trafficking Accountability Act (AB 17), which
passed the California legislature in October 2009. The legislation increased the fines related to pimping,
pandering, and procurement of a minor; specifically, it authorizes courts to impose additional fines of
$5000 for the pimping and procurement of a minor under 16, increases the maximum authorized fine
for procurement of a minor to $20,000, and orders an additional $20,000 fine for offenders who are
convicted of abducting a minor for the purposes of prostitution. Half of the fines collected will be
deposited in a Victim-Witness Assistance Fund to support minors exiting prostitution.
Recommendations: Distribution
1. Express the City’s support for AB 90
The City Council would introduce a resolution in support of AB 90, legislation introduced by Sandré
Swanson that would ease the prosecution of pimps and traffickers.

AB 90 makes clear that where a trafficking victim is 18 years of age or younger, a showing of force,
fraud, or coercion is not required in proving the elements of the crime. Because minors cannot consent
to a sexual act, to require a showing of force as it relates to a minor trafficking victim is unreasonable.
Instead, the legislation changes the standard of proof to a showing that the defendant caused, induced,
encouraged, or persuaded the victim. This bill makes state law consistent with federal law.115
Projected outcome:

viii
An increase in the prosecution and successful conviction of pimps and johns.
OPD’s prostitution tip line is 510-238-2373.
45 | P a g e
Environment – The Track
"I don't have prostitutes walking down the street all hours of the day. I don't have drug-related
activities on the street in front of my store. It is now heaven on earth.”
– business owner in Oakland’s Dimond district, one week after the 2003 closure of the Hillcrest
Motel116
A fourth category of solutions do not seek to intervene directly in the commercial sex market, but rather
seek to create a context in which it is difficult for a sex market to thrive. In general, these strategies seek
to alter the physical environment. For example, Oakland has worked to shut down problem properties
like motels, and other communities have pursued strategies like the creation of one-way streets and
road barriers to deter johns from pulling to curbs.117
I have also included in this section a discussion of the general police presence in the area, which may not
target prostitution per se, but has an overall effect on the real and perceived public safety of a
neighborhood.
Environmental strategies are, by their very nature, place-based: in this case, place-based strategies
generally involve implementing changes along International Boulevard (commonly called “The Track”),
the current center of street prostitution in Oakland.
Place-based strategies run a substantial risk of simply displacing the problem elsewhere. Pimps are
persistent, and they can easily move their operations to a new area. British researchers found that
following stepped up enforcement against prostitution in one neighborhood of Cardiff, Wales,
prostitution activity increased in nearby unpatrolled areas. 118 Indeed, International Boulevard has not
always been the center of Oakland’s sex market; in the past, San Pablo Avenue was a major trafficking
center, and street prostitution activity continues there as well.
Further, environmental strategies will likely only affect street prostitution, not the significant indoor
market for commercial sex. Some reformers fear that environmental changes put exploited women in
worse situations. Researchers at the University of Huddersfield warn that “the risk of displacement
threatens to negate any gains of enforcement activity by making prostitution an even more hidden and
secretive enterprise.” 119 ACDAO notes that nearly all of the cases seen by their HEAT unit involve some
use of the internet, including Craigslist, MySpace, and Redbook.120
At the same, place-based initiatives do have a place in a broad anti-trafficking strategy. A nuisance
property is a nuisance property, any way you split it, and every Oakland neighborhood should have the
capacity to take action against properties that are magnets for crime. Some studies show hot-spot
policing to be effective in reducing crime overall crime (though spillover effects outside of the
enforcement area have only been examined in the short term). 121 Successful place-based solutions can
also lay the groundwork for city-wide change.
Additionally, police enforcement in particular can move with the problem from one hot spot to another.
OPD has acknowledged the need to focus on commercial sex wherever it occurs, saying , “juvenile
prostitution is not restricted only to the City’s major thoroughfares. Since these victims are often
dispatched to homes, motels, and other locations, the Department’s efforts are focused on behavior
rather than locations.”122
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What Oakland is doing: Environment
Enforcing nuisance ordinances against motels.
Oakland has been working to curb prostitution at motels for at least the past decade. In 2000, OPD’s
Beat Health Unit took action against a motel near Oakland International Airport that had become a
magnet for crime, including prostitution. When the on-site manager failed to change the motel’s
management practices after repeated OPD requests, OPD and the City Attorney’s office initiated a
nuisance abatement lawsuit and brought it to the attention of the motel chain’s domestic CEO in Texas
and international CEO
in France. The lawsuit
was settled with a
$250,000 performance
bond (which would
have been forfeited to
Oakland if the motel
failed to comply with
stated improvement
measures) and a
payment of $35,000 in
recouped investigation
costs to the city. The
motel rapidly changed
its business practices
thereafter, and in
2003, OPD won a
national award for
problem-oriented
A police car outside the National Lodge, one of three motels named in the
policing for their
123 124
City Attorney’s lawsuits.
efforts.
The Beat
Source: InsideBayArea.Com (Ray Chavez/staff)
Health Unit was shut
down in 2005.
In an effort championed by then-Councilwoman Jean Quan in 2003, the city pressed for and won the
closure of the Hillcrest Motel in the Dimond district.125 126 After the motel’s closure, the city purchased
the property, brought in a private developer to create senior affordable housing, and spurred an
economic revitalization of the neighboring commercial district. 127
City Attorney John Russo’s office filed lawsuits in December 2010 under the state Red Light Abatement
Act128 against three budget motels: the Economy Lodge (at 12th St and 1st Ave.), the National Lodge (at
17th St. and International Blvd.), and the Sage Motel (at MacArthur Blvd. and High St.). 129 130 If the city
succeeds in declaring the motels public nuisances, each motel owner may be subject to a $25,000
maximum fine, and the property may be shut down for up to one year. 131 EBAYC has proposed that the
city purchase the National Motel and redevelop the property to meet a community need, such as
affordable housing or a grocery store, and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC)
has determined that the site would be suitable for such a purpose.
47 | P a g e
OPD Community Policing efforts
In 1996, the Oakland City Council passed a resolution to implement community policing in the city.
Oakland’s community policing program employs problem-solving officers (PSOs) who focus not on
incident response but rather on proactively tackling ongoing problems in Oakland neighborhoods. PSOs
also seek community input and partnership, primarily through Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils
(NCPCs) established in each police beat.132
OPD’s community policing program is funded through the Measure Y violence prevention parcel tax. The
community policing program was shut down due to the interruption of Measure Y funds in June 2010
and was re-launched in January 2011.
According to OPD’s quarterly report on community policing, PSOs opened seven formal projects
associated with prostitution in the first quarter of 2011, representing 7% of all projects. The report
found a strengthened institutional commitment to community policing but also noted that severe
constraints on OPD resources prevent full implementation of an effective program.133
As of the writing of this report, PSOs are implementing a two-month push to combat street prostitution
in East Oakland. Two officers from the Neighborhood Enforcement Team (NET), a group of officers paid
for with redevelopment funds, were reassigned from deep East Oakland to International Boulevard in
the Eastlake/San Antonio area to combat street prostitution. PSO Lt. Yelder indicates that the officers
are spending two weeks in increased enforcement activities, including arresting women and girls on the
street to develop a comprehensive list of prostituted women in Oakland, followed by one week of
intensive outreach getting girls into services, followed by another week of outreach to community
groups. That four-week cycle would then be repeated once more. The eight-week push spanned March
and April, 2011.134
HEAT Watch Neighborhood Program and Bay Area HEAT Coalition
As part of the ACDAO’s anti-trafficking efforts, HEAT Watch outreaches to communities through the
HEAT Watch Neighborhood Program. Representatives from ACDAO attend NCPC meetings, host
community awareness events about the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and maintain
relationships with direct services providers and community members. In addition, ACDAO has set up a
HEAT Watch tip line, ix so that community members can easily report suspected human trafficking
activity.135
ACDAO also coordinates the Bay Area HEAT Coalition (BAHC), a regional convening of agencies from
around the San Francisco Bay Area that have contact with CSEC. BAHC seeks to develop a regional
response to sex trafficking, including data sharing, common protocols across cities and counties, and
sharing of expertise. ACDAO describes BAHC as mulit-system and multi-jurisdictional. BAHC provides a
single point of contact for Bay Area anti-trafficking work and is developing a resource guide to identify
points of contact across all nine Bay Area counties. In 2012, BAHC will coordinate a national conference
on human trafficking.
ix
The HEAT Watch Tip Line is 510-208-4959.
48 | P a g e
Recommendations: Environment
1. Ensure that community policing efforts actively engage all community members in twoway dialogue
OPD problem-solving officers would improve community policing practices on the ground by





stationing officers in the community for several years at a time,
facilitating two-way dialogue between officers and the community at NCPC meetings,
attending existing community meetings, and
meeting the linguistic needs of immigrant communities by providing translation at meetings,
and
recruiting and placing neighborhood officers who have appropriate cultural and linguistic
fluency.



Community and neighborhood organizations like EBAYC
Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils
Partnerships between the police
and local communities are vital
to consistent efforts to curb
street prostitution in
neighborhoods. For example, the
Dear John letter program under
development by PSOs requires
consistent community
participation and feedback to
police to be successful.
While OPD has worked for many
years to implement community
policing, problems remain. OPD’s
stated goals include




encouraging active
citizen involvement in
community policing
efforts,
An Oakland Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council.
ensuring active PSO
involvement in the
affairs of the community,
developing the capacity of residents to speak and act effectively on their own behalf, and
strengthening and building groups and organizations so residents can advocate for their own
interests.136
49 | P a g e
However reductions in department resources have limited OPD’s ability to address community concerns,
and some community members feel a lack of representation or voice in their NCPC.
Community members from the Eastlake and San Antonio neighborhoods report that NCPC meetings
sometimes feel like a one-way discussion, where police explain their activities to residents and ask for
help but do not actively solicit community feedback or use community concerns to shape department
priorities in an ongoing way. A study integrating community policing learning from 12 law enforcement
agencies closely examined the importance of community partnerships in policing:
“Police agencies that are serious about community policing should be moving beyond
this sense of partnership; that is, beyond the tendency to view citizens as simply an
extra set of eyes and ears in the neighborhood … Community policing reformers
characterize partnerships as having two-way communication and a degree of powersharing between the partners. Communication in several of the partnerships that we
observed was constrained in some way, undermining their potential value. In other
instances, however, police agencies were providing citizens with new opportunities to
truly collaborate in matters from which they previously had been excluded. Those
departments had greatly increased their ability to solve complex problems.”137
Moving forward, OPD PSOs need to be certain they actively involve community members in a way that
involves true listening and partnership.
The areas of the Oakland flatlands that have significant problems with street prostitution are primarily
Southeast Asian and Latino immigrant communities. A project from the New York Police Department
(NYPD) found that, because immigrant communities have high barriers to trust with the police,
community policing among such communities requires regular channels of communication between
immigrant community leaders and police, as well as outreach to a variety of community
representatives.138
Language barriers prevent low-income immigrant populations from being involved in community
policing. Most NCPCs do not provide translation for Spanish, Vietnamese, or Chinese-speaking
populations. In some instances, the solution will be as simple as recruiting volunteers from ethnic
communities to translate.
In addition, beat officers who do not speak the language or understand the culture of neighborhood
residents will have great difficulty building trust. OPD should make concerted efforts to assign PSOs to
neighborhoods based on cultural and linguistic fluency.
Building trust for law enforcement, especially in Oakland immigrant communities, takes time. A national
roundtable discussion between immigrant leaders and law enforcement also concluded that “the
community policing philosophy of long-term assignment of officers to specific neighborhoods or areas
and the geographic deployment of officers to facilitate contact with residents should remain core
practices for local law enforcement.” 139 In fact, the Oakland City Council resolution that implemented
community policing provides for PSOs to remain in place for six years, with optional extensions of up to
two years.140 In practice, however, most OPD assignments are much shorter, usually on the order of one
year. OPD should make every effort to leave beat officers in place for as long as possible to build trust
with the community.
The same roundtable discussion concluded that meetings conducted on the community’s turf were
useful to building trust.141 NCPC meetings are conducted in the community, but they are OPD’s
meetings, and OPD typically sets the meeting agenda. While NCPCs are a valuable tool for creating
community organization in neighborhoods that lack it, where community organizations already exist in
50 | P a g e
neighborhoods, OPD should also proactively seek to solicit their partnership and feedback as a part of a
comprehensive community policing strategy. Participating in existing community meetings would be a
helpful step toward a real two-way dialogue between police and the community.
Projected outcome:

Greater trust and cooperation between police and community, resulting in more effective
community policing.
2. Reinstitute the Beat Health Unit in the Oakland Police Department
OPD would create a new unit tasked with improving the conditions at problem properties, including
budget motels and massage parlors. This unit would be modeled on the evidence-based, award-winning
Beat Health Unit that was disbanded in 2005.



City Attorney’s Office
Community members and business owners
OPD has an excellent track record of dealing with problem motels, as noted in the history above,
including a productive partnership with the City Attorney’s office to bring legal action against property
owners who do not implement good business practices. However, since the dissolution of the Beat
Health Unit, the task of addressing problem properties has fallen to the PSOs, whose responsibilities are
broad and whose time is limited. A unit dedicated specifically to nuisance locations would be able to
clean up or close down a greater proportion of problem properties.
The Beat Health Unit, originally established in 1988, dealt with several thousand problem locations in
Oakland before its dissolution in 2005.x Beat Health cases first involved establishing a relationship with
the property owner or manager to provide strategies to address crime and disorder on the property. If
those efforts failed, Beat Health officers involved inspectors from city agencies to enforce local safety
codes, and in about 2% of cases Beat Health cooperated with in-house legal staff or the City Attorney to
bring formal legal complaints against properties. Beat Health’s efforts won a national award for
problem-oriented policing in 2000, and a 1999 randomized experimental study found that the Beat
Health approach was effective in reducing drug dealing and improving the physical conditions of street
blocks, relative to a control group consisting of standard police patrols.142
PSOs currently carry out most of these functions when necessary, but their wider range of
responsibilities means they cannot work on property issues with the same breath or depth that Beat
Health once did. A dedicated problem property unit could address far more prostitution hotspots, like
problem motels and massage parlors. In Nassau County, New York, a concerted police effort targeting
the property owners resulted in the elimination of all known illegal massage parlors. 143
Because of current city budget problems and recent police layoffs, the creation of a new Beat Health
unit should be regarded as a long-term goal. In the meantime, PSOs should make sure that they employ
x
OPD declined an opportunity to comment on the reasons for the dissolution of the Beat Health unit.
51 | P a g e
consistent and proactive enforcement against the owners of illegal massage parlors and nuisance motels
by:



proactively giving crime prevention information to the owners of budget motels,
working with legitimate business owners to develop business practices that discourage crime on
the premises, 144 and
working with the City Attorney’s office to file nuisance abatement lawsuits against
noncompliant properties under California’s Red Light Abatement Law.
When possible, abated properties should be redeveloped by the city.
Appendix B lists 37 law enforcement responses to problems at budget motels, drawn from Community
Oriented Policing Services.
Projected outcomes:


An increase in responsible anti-crime measures taken by Oakland property owners.
A reduction in the number of properties, like motels and massage parlors, that allow sex
trafficking to thrive through ignorance, neglect, or criminal intent.
52 | P a g e
Conclusion
Sex trafficking is a brutal and stubbornly pervasive problem in Oakland. Hundreds of Oakland women
and girls, many of them minors, are forced to sell their bodies every day on the street, in massage
parlors, or on the internet. Meanwhile, communities are saddened and angered by the sale of sex on
their streets, as local businesses fail to thrive and parents fear for the safety of their daughters.
In the past decade, local agencies at work on this issue have made great strides: Community service
providers and many government agencies collaborate in the SEM Network and the HEAT Watch
programs. SEM Network providers have grown their funding and provide a true continuum of care to
girls exiting prostitution. The District Attorney’s office creatively prosecute traffickers to win lengthy
sentences, and the Oakland Police have secured federal funding to expand their sting operations, put
many more traffickers behind bars, and begun connecting girls to advocacy and community resources.
The case workers, police officers, attorneys, policymakers, and the survivors of commercial sexual
exploitation who have been involved in this fight for many years deserve thanks for their hard work and
perseverance.
Still, much work remains to be done. A new focus on demand reduction is needed to complement the
aggressive prosecution of traffickers and the aftercare efforts toward prostituted girls; that demand
effort should include complimentary, evidence-based methods with relatively low cost, like john school
and an increase in reverse sting operations. Additional resources should be directed to early
intervention and prevention for sexually exploited minors, especially in Oakland’s middle and high
schools. To ensure high-functioning community partnerships, Oakland’s community policing effort must
be certain that it effectively builds trust with immigrant populations in the communities where
prostitution is most prevalent.
By implementing these and other strategies, Oakland can reduce overall demand for commercial sex,
divert at-risk girls from the horrors of sexual slavery, and improve the overall level of trust and
partnership between police and neighborhoods. If Oakland leaders sustain a commitment to ending
commercial sexual exploitation through proven smart practices and innovative new programs, then we
will more and more achieve a future where traffickers are brought to justice, women and girls can live
free from fear, and none of our daughters are for sale.
53 | P a g e
Appendix A: Example Dear John letter and community reporting form
Sample community reporting form used by the Raleigh Police Department for their Dear John
program.145
54 | P a g e
Sample letter sent to owners of cars involved in prostitution arrests in Pensacola, Florida.146 Many “Dear
John” letters follow a similar format.
55 | P a g e
Appendix B: Responses to Disorder at Budget Motels
The following tables from the Community Oriented Policing Services guide on Disorder at Budget Motels
detail law enforcement responses to problems at budget motels.147
General Principles for an Effective Strategy
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
1
Enlisting
community support
to address the
problem
Establishes joint
ownership of the problem
and a solid foundation for
change
…there is sufficient public
interest in and political
support for addressing the
problem
A local business association,
such as the Chamber of
Commerce, may be best
positioned to take the lead in
enlisting and maintaining
community support
2
Obtaining
cooperation from
motel owners and
managers
Limits the need to
regulate changes in
business practices
…the needs and opinions
of motel managers and
owners are sought early in
the problem-solving
process
Not all motels are interested
in changing the way they do
business; these
establishments will require a
different approach
3
Establishing and
enforcing minimum
motel functionality
and security
standards
Restricts the operation of
motels to those that can
provide accommodations
that meet basic standards
…pertinent city and
county agencies, such as
code enforcement, the
attorney’s office, and the
health department can
provide assistance
May require years to
implement, as well as
significant political support
and ongoing resources for
implementation
4
Establishing crimeand- disorder
performance
standards and goals
Shifts the responsibility
for safety to those most
able to improve
conditions—motel
operators
…a number of motels
already maintain annual
CFS/room ratios of less
than 1.0
May require years to
implement, as well as
significant political support
56 | P a g e
Responses to Disorder at Budget Motels, continued
Specific Responses to Disorder at Budget Motels
Deterring/Screening Problem Guests and Visitors
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
5
Requiring all adult
guests and visitors to
present governmentissued photo ID at the
front desk immediately
upon arrival
Creates a record of
motel users for police
purposes; can help
screen out those who
do not wish to be
identified by motel
personnel
…front desk clerks
consistently adhere to
information collection
requirements and refuse
to allow access to people
without proper IDs
A guest/visitor log is most
useful to police if the
information is legibly
recorded on a
standardized form, or, if
possible, entered into a
standardized computer
database
6
Requiring that guests
and visitors be at least
21 years old, unless
accompanied by a
parent or legal guardian
Denies minors access
to a place to drink
alcohol; helps prevent
minors from being
sexually assaulted in a
motel room
… front desk clerks
consistently refuse to
allow unaccompanied
minors on the premises
and a large number of
problem guests are under
21
Can be difficult to
implement without
perimeter control
7
Maintaining and
enforcing “no rent” and
“no trespass” lists
Prevents one-time
problem motel users
from becoming repeat
motel users
…both visitors and guests
are required to present
photo ID to enter the
property
Requires good recordkeeping on the part of
motels and perimeter
control
8
Limiting visitors and
contact between
strangers
Inhibits parties;
reduces the
opportunity for illicit
transactions between
strangers
…motels can control both
pedestrian and vehicle
access to the property
Controlling the perimeter
may be costly
9
Prominently posting
notices and signs that
clearly outline
appropriate guest and
visitor behavior, as well
as the sanctions that will
be levied against
violators
Sets rules for motel
users’ behavior;
removes excuses
regarding the
consequences of
violations
…guests and visitors read
the notices, and
management enforces
the rules
Motels with lower
CFS/room ratios may not
want or need explicit rules
prohibiting prostitution
and drug use
10
Guaranteeing payment
from high-risk guests
Gives motel staff
leverage over guests
who won’t leave or
pay; helps screen
guests who can’t afford
a room
…guests’ credit cards are
legitimate
Not all motel customers
will have credit cards; in
these cases, motels can
require multi-night
deposits well in advance of
departure dates
57 | P a g e
11
Refusing to rent to
known or suspected
prostitutes, gang
members, or drug
dealers, or to
anyone clearly
intoxicated or under
the influence of illicit
substances
Denies motel access
to extremely highrisk guests and
visitors
…clerks can identify high-risk
guests, management supports
denying them access, and the
motel can either replace them
with low-risk guests or absorb
the resulting short-term loss of
revenue
Clerks cannot discriminate
against people who would
like to rent rooms based on
their race, religion, gender,
or other protected
characteristics
12
Implementing clear
check-in policies,
and training clerks in
their use
Standardizing and
formalizing check-in
procedures aids
clerks in
consistently
screening out
problem guests
…clerk turnover is relatively
low, or key information is
provided to new clerks, in
written form
Managers may need to
periodically check on
adherence to check-in
procedures and standards
13
Reinforcing formal
and informal social
controls over
problem guests
People who have
influence over
problem guests
limit their ability to
frequent the
premises, or they
require
improvements in
behavior
…problem motels are
patronized by significant
numbers of people who can be
influenced
(parolees/probationers, military
personnel, college students, or
seasonal laborers)
Parolees/probationers may
have difficulty finding other
housing that meets their
needs
58 | P a g e
Managing Problem Guests and Visitors
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
14
Assigning potential
problem guests to
rooms near the front
office or with high
natural surveillance
Increases the
guests’ risk of
getting caught
engaging in
problem behaviors
…such rooms are not
booked when suspicious
guests arrive
This response should be used in
only a few borderline cases at any
one time; if a clerk or manager
does not feel comfortable renting
to a person, they should not
proceed with check-in
15
Employing welltrained, uniformed,
on-site security
guards, with clear
expectations
regarding duties
Provides significant
oversight of the
property
…guards go beyond
patrolling and
proactively use all the
tools at their disposal to
keep order on the
property
Involves a substantial cost to the
motel
16
Prohibiting “back-in”
parking
Reduces motels’
appeal to criminals;
gives guards an
opportunity to
engage violators
…motels are located in
or near states that do
not require a front
license plate
Signs prohibiting this practice
must be posted; guests may not
understand the restriction
17
Inspecting the rooms
of guests who refuse
maid service or
behave suspiciously
after check-in
Limits the amount
of time guests have
total control over
the use of rooms
…motels employ
security guards or other
staff who are trained in
recognizing drug
paraphernalia
Situations involving suspected
clandestine drug labs or sales are
dangerous, and police
involvement is recommended
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Changing the Physical Environment
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
18
Limiting access to the
property
Problem guests and
visitors can be screened
out at the front desk
…direct room access or
use of the property by
people not associated
with the motel is a
source of the problem
Involves a cost to the
motel; police and other
emergency personnel
must have access to the
property
19
Installing and monitoring
CCTV
Increases the risk
offenders will get
caught engaging in
illicit or undesirable
behavior
…the motel has only a
few identifiable
problem areas
motel
20
Installing adequate lighting,
and improving the visibility
at blind corners with
mirrors
Increases the risk
offenders will be
detected
…problems occur at
night and in the motel’s
public areas
motel
21
Landscaping and
maintaining the property in
a way that minimizes crime
opportunities and
maximizes the perception
of ownership
Sends the message that
the location is
unsuitable for criminal
activity
…it is done in
conjunction with access
control, and strict guest
and visitor screening
motel
22
Establishing redesign and
property improvement
incentives
Provides motel owners
with resources or
benefits for upgrading
properties or improving
their security features
…motels are interested
in serving a legitimate
clientele, but lack the
resources to attract
legitimate customers
May involve a cost to the
jurisdiction and/or the
motel
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Fostering Responsibility Among Motel Owners and Managers for Maintaining Safe Lodging
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
23
Informing
owners and
managers about
problems on site
Removes excuses on the
part of owners and
managers
…the problem motels are
concerned about their reputation
or the threat of abatement
Requires ongoing staff
support to forward
crime-and-disorder
statistics to motels and
conduct follow-up
meetings
24
Requiring that a
manager be on
the property at
all times
Ensures that the
property will have 24hour oversight
…a manager can live in the motel
motel
25
Encouraging
owners to sign
“good neighbor
agreements”
Creates a formal record
of specific management
practices agreed to by a
problem motel
…the agreed-upon practices can
be easily monitored
The consequences of
violating the agreement
should be spelled out
26
Offering
employee
training
programs
Provides employees with
information that can
help them run safe
motels; ensures
employees are aware of
pertinent regulations
…training sessions are required
and offer information that will
help prevent fraud,
establishment of drug labs, theft,
vandalism, robbery, and other
crimes that adversely affect
motel finances and employees
Requires ongoing staff
support to develop,
coordinate, and conduct
the training
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Establishing and Enforcing Regulations and Penalties
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
27
Limiting occupancy to no
more than 28 days in a
90-day period, and
evicting problem tenants
Prevents occupants
from becoming legal
tenants at motels not
designed for long-term
stays; removes
problem guests
…guests staying
longer than seven
days undergo morethorough screening
procedures, such as
credit and reference
checks
Guests who need long-term
housing but can afford or
obtain only motel lodging may
cycle in and out of multiple
motels over a period of
months
28
Conducting regulatory
inspections and audits
Ensures that buildings
meet codes designed
to protect guests and
visitors
…city/county
agencies coordinate
efforts
Requires ongoing staff support
to coordinate and conduct
inspections/audits
29
Implementing licensing
requirements for lodging
establishments, including
minimum security,
sanitation, and
management standards
Ensures that motels
meet minimum
standards of operation
specifically developed
for overnight lodging
establishments
…a significant
number of a
jurisdiction’s motels
operate in a
substandard way
Requires significant political
support to be instituted, as
well as ongoing resources to
manage the licensing program
30
Enacting special
regulations for adult
motels
Targets those motels
most likely to generate
a high number of
service calls by limiting
their operations in
various ways
…problems at the
motels stem from
prostitution, and
compliance with
regulations can be
easily monitored
Exemptions may need to be
made for legitimate hourly
rentals such as those for
corporate hospitality suites
31
Requiring a performance
bond or other changes at
the property in exchange
for continued business
operation
Gives police financial
leverage over problem
motels
…problem motels
have sufficient
resources and
incentive to take out
a bond
Requires legal support and
clear evidence of significant
problems at a property
32
Seeking cost recovery for
excessive city time spent
at problem motels
Jurisdictions calculate
the value of officer or
other staff time
required to address
problems at a motel
…one or two motels
are extreme outliers
with respect to callsfor-service ratios
May require legal action
33
Closing the property
Problem motels can no
longer operate
…motel owners have
actively allowed
crime to occur on the
property
Can be expensive and timeconsuming; must have the
support of city or county legal
staff; all legal property owners
must be accurately identified,
which can be a challenge
34
Using asset forfeiture or
seizure
Jurisdictions assume
ownership of property
used for illicit purposes
…the property can be
relatively easily sold
or converted to other
Faces legal challenges
62 | P a g e
uses
Responses With Limited Effectiveness
#
Response
How It Works
Works Best If...
Considerations
35
Continually arresting offenders
at problem properties
Intended to remove
problem guests from
motels and deter
them from returning
…arrests are used to
build a case against
owners regarding
poor guest screening
Except for casebuilding, this is not
shown to be an
effective use of officer
time
36
Conducting field interviews of
people at problem motels, and
traffic stops of vehicles leaving
them; scheduling extra police
patrols of problem motels
Intended to deter
problem guests from
frequenting motels
…the measures are
used to better
understand what
attracts problem
guests to the motels
Except for datagathering, this is not
shown to be an
effective use of officer
time
37
Implementing Crime-Free
Hotel/Motel programs
Intended to promote
voluntary compliance
with good
management
practices
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Focuses on process
rather than outcomes
Appendix C: Predicting the movement of street prostitution hotspots
Police enforcement displaces street prostitution
Over time, the geographical center of street prostitution activity in Oakland shifts. Years ago, San Pablo
Avenue was considered the hub for Oakland’s street walkers. More recently, International Boulevard
has taken that dubious title, earning the nickname “The Track.” When police enforcement increases in
one geographical area, pimps and traffickers do not simply fold their lucrative business; they move it
elsewhere. This dislocation of crime is an unfortunate side effect of traditional “hot spot” policing.
But what if we could guess where pimps would move? If law enforcement, community groups, and
other local government agencies could predict the future movement of street prostitution activity, they
could take preventative measures in those neighborhoods. In other words, what are the distinctive
characteristics of Oakland neighborhoods where sex is sold on the street now, and what areas might
provide a hospitable environment for the sale of sex on the street in the future? The central question
this analysis seeks to address is , given where street prostitution occurs now, what areas of Oakland
are most at risk of becoming future prostitution centers?
I performed an analysis using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software to determine the
characteristics of neighborhoods where street prostitution happens now and then to find other
neighborhoods with similar characteristics. The analysis involved two stages:


First, I identified demographic characteristics that are correlated with current prostitution
hotspots. I did this by combining census block group data with the geographical location of
reported prostitution incidents as well as with a control group of random points. Taking the
average of the prostitution and control points, I performed means-comparison statistical tests to
determine the ways in which prostitution hotspots are distinct from the average Oakland
neighborhood.
Second, I used the distinctive characteristics of current hotspots to identify similar areas in other
parts of Oakland. I designated levels of distinctive demographic characteristics that represented
“opportunities” and “constraints” for street prostitution, weighted them according to
importance, and produced individual layers for each characteristic. By combining 13 weighted
layers of geographical data, I obtained a street prostitution risk value for fine-grained
geographical areas in Oakland.
While my analysis cannot claim that any correlated factors cause street prostitution, the maps below
provide useful information about neighborhoods with correlated factors.
Methodology
Obtaining and preparing data
Data on existing prostitution hotspots came from Oakland CrimeWatch. The data I downloaded
consisted of all reported crimes for a period of several months before the receipt of the data. I identified
all crimes related to prostitution, pimping, and pandering and filtered out crimes unrelated to street
prostitution, resulting in a table of 219 prostitution-related reports occurring between December 25,
2010 and April 18, 2011.
Using the addresses associated with these events, I geocoded and matched all 219 prostitution incidents
to geographical points. Because OPD generalizes the address of police reports to the nearest cross
street, each point fell at the intersection of two street segments.
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Most other Oakland data was obtained from the UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture’s
Oakland dataset. Included in these data were census block groups with a range of demographic
characteristics. Elevation data (NED 1-arc second) was obtained from the US Geological Survey’s
Seamless Server. For simplicity’s sake, when I refer to “demographic characteristics” in the following
discussion, I am also including variables like income and elevation that are not strictly demographic.
Experimental and control groups
I created a control group of 219 random points within the boundary of the city of Oakland. In the
analysis that follows, the 219 prostitution report points form an experimental group, while the 219
random points form a control group.
By associating each control and experimental point with the values of demographic characteristics
(racial composition, income levels, occupancy rates, and others) in that geographical location and then
averaging those points together, I produced two sets of mean statistics:


Experimental means that describe the neighborhood characteristics at the average prostitution
report location in the city.
Control means that describe the neighborhood characteristics at the average geographic
location in Oakland.
The next page shows maps of the experimental and control points.
My analysis included means comparisons for the following variables:














Percent white population
Percent black/African-American population
Percent Asian population
Percent Hispanic population
Population in 2000
Median age
Owner occupancy rate
Vacancy rate
Percent of population between the ages of 10-14
Median income
Poverty rate
Elevation
All measures were taken from 2000 Census data, except for elevation.
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Associating demographic data with points
Several steps were required to associate demographic characteristics from census block and elevation
data with my experimental and control points.
Because prostitution incidents are recorded at intersections, nearly all prostitution points fell on a
boundary between census block groups. In order to obtain a spot estimate for each variable at every
point location, I had to convert my census block data into a continuous surface.
I first decomposed the census blocks into points, then used kriging interpolation to make 13 continuous
floating point raster images for each of the variables above. (NED elevation data came in raster format
directly.) Then I used GIS tools to associate each point with values for all 14 variables in that geographic
location. The result was a pair of tables (one experimental and one control) containing estimates of all
14 variables for all 219 prostitution incident points and all 219 random points.
The map below is an example of one of the interpolated raster layers.
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Means-comparison tests
After associating values for all 14 variables to each point, I exported the experimental and control
attribute tables to Excel and ran t-tests (two-tailed for unequal variances) on each pair of variable
means. The results of those test are given in the table below.
Demographic comparison, control and prostitution points
Statistic
Poverty rate
Control
Mean
Control Prostitution Prostitution
σ
Mean
σ
t-value
16%
11%
28%
6%
**-13.46
$57,298
$43,779
$24,039
$9,031
**10.91
Vacancy rate
2%
2%
5%
3%
**-8.97
Owner Occupancy rate
47%
31%
18%
8%
**12.97
Median age
29.2
13.5
24.3
5.6
**4.85
% of population 10-14
5%
3%
7%
2%
**-8.39
3%
2%
4%
1%
**-9.31
3%
2%
6%
2%
**-16.81
% white
32%
27%
18%
8%
**7.25
% black
23%
22%
19%
20%
*2.04
% Asian
10%
10%
22%
13%
**-10.44
% Hispanic
13%
15%
32%
16%
**-13.08
92
114
12
5
**10.21
91.7
64.5
91.8
54.4
-0.02
Median income
Elevation (meters)
Population in 2000 (per block)
Bold variables showed statistically significant differences. n=219 for both groups.
* - significant at α = .05
** - significant at α = .01
Nearly every variable in the analysis showed a statistically significant difference between the
experimental and control groups. Only per-block population was insignificant. The percentage of black
population showed a statistically significant difference at the α = .05 level but not at the α = .01 level.
Opportunities and constraints
In order to indentify Oakland neighborhoods at risk of incurring street prostitution, I used the
statistically significant variables identified in the first half of the analysis to define opportunity and
constraint boundaries. In this context, opportunities are factors that were positively correlated with
street prostitution activity in the analysis, while constraints are factors that were negatively correlated
with prostitution activity. For example, because the means comparisons found a strong positive
correlation between high vacancy rates and street prostitution, areas with especially high vacancy rates
68 | P a g e
(one standard deviation above the experimental mean) were classified as opportunity areas, while areas
with vacancy rates below the control mean were classified as constraint layers. I included as
opportunities and constraints the 12 variables that were significant at the .01 level.
Because street prostitution requires easy traffic access, I also created a 13th opportunity layer based on a
500-foot buffer from major Oakland thoroughfares. All but two of the prostitution reports occurred
within 500 feet of a thoroughfare. The following streets were classified as thoroughfares: 7th St, 14th St.,
73rd Ave., 98th Ave., Adeline, Bancroft, Broadway, Foothill, Fruitvale, Grand, Harrison, Hegenberger,
High, Macarthur, Mandela, Park, San Pablo, Seminary, and Telegraph.
The tables on the next page give the opportunity and constraint boundaries along with the rationale for
the choice and the relative weight given to them in the analysis.
To create suitability layers for use in the final analysis, I reclassified the floating point interpolation
rasters as integer rasters, breaking them each into three ranges based on the opportunity and constraint
breaking points. I then decomposed those integer rasters into polygons, with opportunity regions,
constraint regions, and neutral regions. The map below shows one of the 12 polygon suitability layers.
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Opportunities
Statistic
Opportunity bound
Rationale
Weight
Near thoroughfare
Within 500 feet
Captures 99% of existing
prostitution points
5
Poverty rate
Over 34%
1 SD above experimental mean
3
Median income
Under $15,000
1 SD below experimental mean
3
Vacancy rate
Over 8%
3
Under 10%
3
Median age
Under 19
2
Over 9%
1
Over 5%
1
Over 8%
1
% white
Below 10%
1
% Asian
Above 22%
1
% Hispanic
Above 47%
1
Elevation (meters)
Under 20 feet
Arbitrary, about 1.5 SD above
experimental mean
2
Constraints
Statistic
Constraint bound
Rationale
Weight
Poverty rate
Under 15%
Control mean
-3
Median income
Over $57,000
Control mean
-3
Vacancy rate
Under 2.5%
Control mean
-3
Over 47%
Control mean
-3
Median age
Over 29
Control mean
-2
Under 4.5%
Control mean
-1
Under 2.7%
Control mean
-1
Under 3.1%
Control mean
-1
% white
Above 32%
Control mean
-1
% Asian
Below 10%
Control mean
-1
% Hispanic
Below 12%
Control mean
-1
Elevation (meters)
Over 90 feet
Control mean
-2
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Using the GIS “Union” tool, I combined all 13 opportunity/constraint layers to create a master suitability
layer. Adding together the weight values for each individual polygon yielded the final suitability map,
shown at the end of this analysis.
Limitations of the Analysis
It is important to note that I cannot claim that any of the statistically significant variables in the analysis
cause street prostitution activity, only that they are strongly correlated with it. Indeed, I do not believe,
for example, that a high proportion of racial minorities in a neighborhood causes street prostitution.
Rather, other factors (like general crime levels or poverty) probably create a friendly environment for
street prostitution, and the areas that struggle with crime and poverty also tend to be non-white. The
areas identified on the map as “street prostitution risk zones” merely resemble current street
prostitution hotspots. A more rigorous time series analysis would be necessary to make causal claims.
Due to the constraints of time, resources, and data availability, I could not include many relevant
variables. Many of the variables included in the analysis may not be important predictors of a
neighborhood’s suitability for street prostitution. Ideally, I would have been able to include many more
variables in the analysis, particularly factors thought to have a strong effect on street prostitution, such
as the quality of street lighting, land use patterns, OPD activity or assignments, the presence of budget
motels, and the level of community engagement in local business associations or NCPCs.
OPD CrimeWatch data may not accurately reflect street prostitution activity. First, OPD data reflect
officially reported crimes, not arrests, convictions, or phoned-in tips. CrimeWatch’s webpage says that
data reflect only the most recent 90 days of incidents, but the data I obtained spanned more than 90
days. Importantly, OPD police report data may not accurately represent where street prostitution is
occurring but rather where OPD is concentrating enforcement resources. (For instance, based on
anecdotal evidence, I believe prostitution activity along San Pablo is underrepresented in the maps.)
Conclusions and Discussion
The maps below show that the major cluster of street prostitution activity is along International
Boulevard between Lake Merritt and Fruitvale Ave., with a secondary cluster just east of High Street and
additional activity scattered throughout West Oakland. On average, areas with street prostitution have
lower income, a lower rate of owner occupancy, and a higher vacancy rate, proportionally fewer whites
and more minorities, and a greater proportion of young people than the typical area in Oakland. About
99% of reported prostitution incidents occurred within 500 feet of a thoroughfare.
Several areas in West Oakland show particularly strong risk, notably along San Pablo, Adeline, and
Mandela Parkway. The data may under-represent existing street prostitution in those areas.
Nevertheless, these West Oakland thoroughfares seem to be likely candidates for future street
prostitution activity. In the event of major police crackdowns on International, the outdoor market for
sex could easily move to West Oakland.
Deep East Oakland also shows considerable correlation with current prostitution hotspots, especially
along Seminary, Bancroft, and International near 98th Ave. However, currently no prostitution activity
occurs east of 50th Ave., despite much of deep East Oakland showing hot spot risk. Future analyses could
examine the question of why. One explanation might be violent crime: deep East Oakland has a higher
rate of violent crime, and johns may feel less safe on the street there. In that case, a reduction in violent
crime might actually lead to an increase in street prostitution. On the other hand, deep East Oakland
communities might have particular resources that help them discourage street prostitution. In that case,
similar areas in the Oakland flatlands could learn from deep East Oakland’s success
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Endnotes
1
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department. 10 July 2007. “A Report on Past Efforts and Current Strategies to
Eliminate the Escalation of Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation of Minors in the City of Oakland.” Report to the
Public Safety Committee, Oakland City Council. [Online]. Available:
http://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=1018175&GUID=86DB5498-2622-4BE6-9B4F-5E05FD16ECD1.
Accessed 22 February 2011.
2
“EBAYC Survey Codebook.” 2010. East Bay Asian Youth Center, 2010 Listening Campaign.
3
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department. 12 April 2005. “A Follow Up Report from the Chief of Police on
Efforts to Address the Issue of Minors Involved in Prostitution in Oakland.” Report to the Public Safety Committee,
Oakland City Council.
4
Walker, Nancy, Ed. 9 April 2002. Prostituted Teens: More Than a Runaway Problem. Michigan Family Impact
Seminars.
5
Cited in Shively, Michael, et. al. 16 August 2010. Developing a National Action Plan for Eliminating Sex Trafficking.
Abt Associates. Prepared for the National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice.
6
Adapted from Loza-Muriera, Barbara and Laura Hobson-Faure. 2003. Alameda County Minors in
Prostitution/Sexually Exploited Minors Task Force Report. Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council.
7
City of Oakland, 12 April 2005.
8
Farley, Melissa. 2006. “Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What We Must Not Know To Keep the
Business of Sexual Exploitation Running Smoothly.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism.
9
Cited in Waltman, Max. 2010. “Prohibiting Purchase of Sex in Sweden: Impact, Obstacles, Potential, and
Supporting Escape.” Working paper. Stockholm University.
10
Ibid.
11
Ibid.
12
Cited in Walker.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
City of Oakland, 12 April 2005. .
16
Loza-Muriera and Hobson-Faure.
17
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department. 26 October 2010. “A Report and Proposed Resolution Authorizing
the City Administrator, on Behalf of the City of Oakland, to Accept and Appropriate Grant Funds in an Amount Not
to Exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) From the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, FY 2010 Law Enforcement Response to Human Trafficking Grant Program
for Continued Implementation and Operation of the East Bay Task Force on Human Trafficking in the Police
Department.” Report to the Public Safety Committee, Oakland City Council.
18
City of Oakland, 10 July 2007.
19
Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Bay Area HEAT Coalition Meeting. 28 April 2011.
20
Ibid.
21
Westcoast Children’s Clinic. Data from screenings of MISSSEY participants.
76 | P a g e
22
Adapted from Shively, et. al. 2010.
23
Wilcox, Aidan, Christmann, Kris, Rogerson, Michelle and Birch, Philip. 2009. “Tackling the Demand for
Prostitution: A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Published Research Literature.” Project Report. Home Office.
[Online]. Available: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/7178/. Accessed 11 January 2011.
24
Macleod, Jan, Melissa Farley, Lynn Anderson, and Jacqueline Golding. 2008. “Challenging Men’s Demand for
Prostitution in Scotland.” Women’s Support Project. *Online+. Available:
http://myweb.dal.ca/mgoodyea/Documents/Client%20studies/Challenging%20men%27s%20demand%20for%20p
rostitution%20in%20Scotland%20Farley%202008.pdf. Accessed 24 March 2011.
25
Shively, et. al. 2010.
26
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department. 27 November 2007. “A Report and Proposed Ordinance Repealing
Ordinances No. 11987, 12015, 12093, and 12684 C.M.S. Which Declare Vehicles Used to Solicit An Act Of
Prostitution, For Pandering, For Pimping, Or To Illegally Acquire A Controlled Substance, To Be Public Nuisances,
And Authorize The Seizure And Forfeiture Of Said Vehicles; And a Proposed Resolution Authorizing The City
Administrator, Or Her Designee, On Behalf Of The City of Oakland, To Support Assembly Bill #1724 (Jones), Which
Seeks To Change State Law To Authorize Local Governments To Enact And Enforce Local Legislation To Forfeit
Nuisance Vehicles Used In The Illegal Purchase Of A Controlled Substance, Pimping, Pandering, Or Solicitation Of
Prostitution.” Report to the Public Safety Committee, Oakland City Council. *Online+. Available:
http://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=1018945&GUID=00FC5E4E-7D4A-438D-B070-EA907D17FA7D.
Accessed 22 February 2011.
27
Saleda, Sgt. James. Oakland Police Department, Exploitation Unit. Interview. 18 February 2011.
28
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department and City Attorney’s Office. 8 February 2011. “Report and Ordinance
Adding Chapter 9.56 to the Oakland Municipal Code, Declaring Vehicles a Public Nuisance and Authorizing
Impoundment of such Vehicles When They are Used to Solicit an Act of Prostitution, for Pandering, Pimping, or
Illegal Dumping.” Report to the Public Safety Committee, Oakland City Council. File # 10-0349-1. [Online].
Available: http://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=829275&GUID=B8120991-421F-4D90-9CC4A95714B6FC48&Options=ID|Text|&Search=prostitution. Accessed 22 February 2011.
29
Saleda interview, 18 February 2011.
30
Yelder, Lt. Ronald and Sgt. Phil Freeman. 23 February 2011. Research meeting at East Bay Asian Youth Center.
31
Hermann, Peter. “Fighting prostitution one john at a time.” Baltimore Sun 20 December 2009. [Online].
Available: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-12-20/news/bal-md.hermann20dec20_1_prostitution-lehmancars. Accessed 22 February 2011.
32
Raleigh Police Department. 30 June 2006. “Operation Dragnet: Reducing the Visibility of Street Prostitution in
Raleigh, NC.” Submission for the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing. [Online].
Available: http://www.popcenter.org/library/awards/goldstein/2006/06-42.pdf. Accessed 23 February 2011.
33
Wilcox et. al.
34
35
Brewer, Devon et. al. December 2006. “A Large Specific Deterrent Effect of Arrest for Patronizing a Prostitute.”
PLoS One, Issue 1. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/A_Large_Specific_Deterrent_Effect_of_Arrest_for_Patronizing_a_Prostitute.p
df. Accessed 22 February 2011.
36
Allen-Taylor, Douglas. 18 January 2006. “Dear Johns: For Shame.” AlterNet. *Online+. Available:
http://www.alternet.org/story/30942/. Accessed 22 March 2011.
37
77 | P a g e
38
“H.E.A.T. Watch Program Blueprint.” 2011. Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
39
“Dear John Campaign.” 2006. City of Atlanta. Web site. [Online]. Available:
http://www.atlantaga.gov/mayor/dearjohn_111006.aspx. Accessed 22 March 2011.
40
Boxill, Nancy and Deborah Richardson. Summer 2007. “Ending Sex Trafficking of Children in Atlanta.” Affilia:
Journal of Women and Social Work, Vol. 22, No. 2.
41
42
Shively, Michael, et. al. 7 March 2008. Final Report on the Evaluation of the First Offender Prostitution Program.
Abt Associates. Prepared for the National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice.
43
Ibid.
44
Kennedy, M. Alexis, Carolin Klein, Boris Garzalka, and John Yuille. 2004. “Attitude Change Following a Diversion
Program for Men Who Solicit Sex.” Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Vol. 40.
45
Shively et. al. 2008.
46
Macleod et. al.
47
Cited in Macleod et. al..
48
“Men Who Buy Sex with Adolescent Girls: A Scientific Research Study.” 2009. The Schapiro Group.
Cited in Shively, et. al. 2010.
49
Ekberg, Gunilla. October 2004. “The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services.” Violence
Against Women, Vol. 10, No. 10.
50
Waltman.
51
Schaaf, Libby. Oakland District 4 City Councilmember. Phone Interview. 21 March 2011.
52
53
Brewer et. al.
54
Raleigh Police Department.
55
Wilcox et. al.
56
Willoughby, Michelle. July 2008. “Demand Deterrence Strategies: International Initiatives to Eliminate Demand
for the Sex Trade.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.
57
Sited in Wilcox.
58
Macleod et. al.
59
Cited in Wilcox.
60
Willoughby.
61
62
Cited in Wilcox.
63
64
California Assembly. AB 12. 6 December 2010. Draft. Abolition of Child Commerce, Exploitation, and Sexual
Slavery Act of 2011. Assembly Member Sandré Swanson, intr. [Online]. Available: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgibin/postquery?bill_number=ab_12&sess=CUR&house=B&author=swanson. Accessed 22 February 2011.
65
Swanson, Sandré. 2011. “AB 12 – (The ACCESS Act) Fact Sheet.”
78 | P a g e
66
Farley 2006.
67
Baker, Lynda M., Rochelle L. Dalla, and Celia Williamson. 2010. “Exiting Prostitution: An Integrated Model.” Sage.
[Online]. Available: http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/16/5/579.full.pdf+html. Accessed 22 February 2011.
68
Baker et. al.
69
Ekberg.
70
Farley, Melissa. 2009. “Theory versus reality: Commentary on four articles about trafficking for prostitution.”
Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 32, No. 2.
71
California Assembly. 2008. AB 499. An act to add and repeal Chapter 4.3 (commencing with Section 18259) of
Part 6 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to sexually exploited minors. Assembly Member
Sandré Swanson, intr. [Online]. Available: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_04510500/ab_499_bill_20080927_chaptered.pdf. Accessed 8 April 2011.
72
California Assembly. 20 February 2007. AB 499. DRAFT. An act to amend Sections 647, 653.22, 653.23, 679.01,
679.04, 11165.1, and 11166.3 of the Penal Code, and to amend Sections 300 and 313 of, and to add Sections 307.6
and 626.1 to, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to sexually exploited minors. Assembly Member Sandré
Swanson, intr.
73
Swanson, Sandré. 2010. “2010 Legislative Update.” *Online+. Available:
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a16/pdf/Swanson-Leg-Update-10.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2011.
74
California Assembly. AB 799. 17 February 2011. Draft. An Act to Amend Section 18259.5 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code, relating to sexually exploited minors. Assembly Member Sandré Swanson, intr. [Online].
Available: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0751-0800/ab_799_bill_20110217_introduced.pdf.
Accessed 2 March 2011.
75
“SEMRise/SEM Network.” 2010. Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council. Web site. *Online+.
Available: http://www.acgov.org/icpc/sem/semrise.htm. Accessed 29 March 2011.
76
Loza-Muriera, Barbara. “Sexually Exploited Minors/Commercially Sexually Exploited Children.” Presentation to
California State PTA. 29 January 2011.
77
SACEY/SPA Program Components, Service Activities, and Providers.
78
Loza-Muriera presentation, 29 January 2011.
79
Loza-Muriera, Barbara. Alameda County Interagency Children’s Policy Council. Interview. 17 February 2011.
80
“Alameda County Family Justice Center.” Web site. *Online+. Available: http://www.acfjc.org/. Accessed 11 April
2011.
81
“HEAT Blueprint”
82
Sciupac, Maia. Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, HEAT Watch Coordinator. Phone interview. 6 April
2011.
83
Ibid.
84
ACDAO BAHC meeting, 28 April 2011.
85
Ibid.
86
Sciupac interview, 6 April 2011.
87
“Bay Area Women Against Rape.” Web site. *Online+. Available: http://www.bawar.org/index. Accessed 11 April
2011.
79 | P a g e
88
“Outreach to Sexually Exploited Minors.” 2007. Measure Y web site. *Online+. Available:
http://measurey.org/index.php?page=sexually-exploited-minors-2. Accessed 29 March 2011.
89
“Interagency Children’s Policy Council of Alameda County: Safe House Planning.” Web site. *Online+. Available:
http://www.acgov.org/icpc/shsummary.htm. Accessed 11 April 2011.
90
Loza-Muriera interview, 17 February 2011.
91
92
Ibid.
93
Farley 2006.
94
Smith, Tony. Superintendent, Oakland Unified School District. 15 March 2011. Research meeting.
95
“Gang Prevention and Intervention Handbook for Schools.” 2010. Oakland Interagency Gang Prevention
Collaborative. [Online]. Available:
http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/199410109161217937/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=5
7572. Accessed 4 March 2011.
96
Loza-Muriera interview, 17 February 2011.
97
Baeza, Gabriela. 10 March 2011. Phone interview. San Diego County Office of Education.
98
Schmidt, Steve. “Teenage prostitution targeted in East County.” 13 November 2010. San Diego Union Tribune.
[Online]. Available: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/13/schools-law-enforcement-trying-domore-against-tee/. Accessed 10 March 2011.
99
“Seattle Women’s Commission 2011 Workplan.” 2011. Web site. *Online+. Available:
http://www.seattle.gov/womenscommission/workplan.htm. Accessed 10 March 2011.
100
Madrigal-Weiss, Mara. 11 March 2011. Phone interview. San Diego County of Education.
101
“MISSSEY Statewide and National Advocacy Plan.” 1 March 2008. MISSSEY. *Online+. Available:
http://www.misssey.org/documents/misssey_strategic_plan.pdf. Accessed 31 March 2011.
102
US Census Bureau, American Fact Finder. 2010 and 2000 Census Redistricting Data. Public Law 94-171 Summary
File. [Online]. Available: http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Accessed 11 April 2011.
103
Loza-Muriera presentation, 29 January 2011.
104
Sciupac, Maia. Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, HEAT Watch Coordinator. Email. 8 April 2011.
105
AB 799.
106
107
Quoted in Walker.
108
Cited in Walker.
109
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department. 8 February 2005. “An Information Report on the ‘Alameda County
Minors in Prostitution Task Force Report’ and the Police Department’s Efforts to Address the Issue of Minors
Involved in Prostitution in Oakland.” Report to the Public Safety Committee, Oakland City Council.
110
“HEAT Blueprint”
111
112
113
City of Oakland, 26 October 2010.
80 | P a g e
114
City of Oakland, Oakland Police Department and City Attorney’s Office. 8 February 2011. “Report and Ordinance
Amending Section 9.08.260 of the Oakland Municipal Code to (1) Prohibit the Sexual Exploitation of Women and
Children, (2) Prohibit Business Owners from Allowing Prostitution on their Property, (3) Declare ProstitutionRelated Offenses Local Crimes, and (4) Clarify Terms Related to Prostitution Offenses.” Report to the Public Safety
Committee, Oakland City Council.
115
California Assembly. AB 90. 6 January 2011. Draft. An Act to Amend Section 236.1 of the penal code, relating to
human trafficking . Assembly Member Sandré Swanson, intr. [Online]. Available: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgibin/postquery?bill_number=ab_90&sess=CUR&house=B&author=swanson. Accessed 22 February 2011.
116
Casey, Laura. “Neighbors hail closure of Hillcrest; residents, businesses say less prostitution, drug deals since
motel was shuttered a week ago.” Oakland Tribune 15 September 2003. LexisNexus. Web. 16 February 2011.
117
Willoughby.
118
Wilcox et. al.
119
Ibid.
120
121
Braga, Anthony. 2008. Crime Prevention Research Review No. 2: Police Enforcement Strategies to Prevent Crime
in Hot Spot Areas. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. [Online]. Available:
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e040825133-web.pdf. Accessed 4 March 2011.
122
123
Oakland Police Department, Beat Health Unit. 2003. “The Oakland Airport Motel Program: Eliminating Criminal
and Nuisance Behavior at a Problem Motel.” Submission for the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in
Problem-Oriented Policing. [Online]. Available: http://www.popcenter.org/library/awards/goldstein/2003/0326%28W%29.pdf. Accessed 16 February 2011.
124
Harris, Harry. “Oakland police win award for motel clean-up; Department’s health unit stamped out drugs,
prostitution at East Oakland site.” Oakland Tribune 31 July 2003. LexisNexus. Web. 16 February 2011.
125
Casey, Laura. “Residents go after Hillcrest Motel again; Dimond District neighbors on MacArthur Boulevard call
it a site for violence; owners from Hillsborough deny allegations.” Oakland Tribune 12 May 2003. LexisNexus. Web.
16 February 2011.
126
“Neighbors hail closure of Hillcrest”
127
Casey, Laura. “Blighted Oakland motel becomes gem for seniors.” Oakland Tribune 15 November 2005. [Online].
Available: http://www.domusd.com/ASSETS/Domus_LincolnCourt_111505.pdf. Accessed 18 February 2011.
128
Red Light Abatement Act. Cal. Penal Code § 11225-11235.
129
Oakland City Attorney’s Office. 22 December 2010. “Oakland sues to shut down hotels catering to prostitution.”
Press release. [Online]. Available:
http://www.oaklandcityattorney.org/PDFS/Press%20Releases/Oak%20sues%20to%20shut%20down%20hotels%20
catering%20to%20prostitution%2012%2022%2010.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2011.
130
Anderson, Mike. 22 December 2010. “Oakland Sues 3 Hotels for Allegedly Welcoming Prostitutes.” NBC Bay
Area. [Online]. Available: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Oakland-Sues-Hotels-in-Sex-Trade112354564.html. Accessed 23 February 2011.
131
California and City of Oakland v. Patel, Patel, Patel, National Lodge, and DOES 1 through 30, Case No. 10552481
(Alameda Co. Superior Court, 21 December 2010). [Online]. Available:
http://www.oaklandcityattorney.org/PDFS/National%20Lodge%20Complaint.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2011.
81 | P a g e
132
City of Oakland, Resolution No. 79235. 17 May 2005. “Resolution amending resolution no. 72727 C.M.S., which
implemented the City of Oakland’s community policing policy, to provide a structured approach to community
involvement.” Oakland City Council.
133
“Measure Y Community Policing Quarterly Report.” 15 April 2011. Resource Development Associates. *Online+.
Available: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/police/documents/webcontent/oak028479.pdf. Accessed
18 April 2011.
134
Yelder meeting, 23 February 2011.
135
136
“Community Policing.” Oakland Police Department. Web site. *Online+. Available:
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/OPD/s/CommunityPolicing/index.htm. Accessed 18 April 2011.
137
Maguire, Edward and William Wells, eds. “Implementing Community Policing: Lessons from 12 Agencies.” July
2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e080925236-ImpCP-Lessons.pdf.
Accessed 18 April 2011.
138
Khashu, Anita, Robin Busch, and Zainab Latif. August 2005. “Building Strong Police-Immigrant Community
Relations: Lessons from a New York City Project.” Vera Institute of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Series.
[Online]. Available: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/Building_PoliceImmigrant_Relations.pdf.
139
“Enhancing Community Policing with Immigrant Populations: Recommendations from a Roundtable Meeting of
Immigrant Advocates and Law Enforcement Leaders.” 28 August 2008. US Department of Justice, Office of
Community Oriented Policing Services. [Online]. Available:
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e041016266-enhancing-cp-immigrant-populations_b.pdf.
140
City of Oakland, Resolution No. 79235. 17 May 2005. “Resolution amending resolution no. 72727 C.M.S., which
implemented the City of Oakland’s community policing policy, to provide a structured approach to community
involvement.” Oakland City Council.
141
“Enhancing Community Policing with Immigrant Populations.”
142
Mazerolle, Lorraine Green, Jan Roehl, and Colleen Kadleck. 1998. “Controlling Social Disorder Using Civil
Remedies: Results from a Randomized Field Experiment in Oakland, California.” Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 9.
143
Farley, Melissa. 30 September 2008. Memo to San Francisco City Leaders on Prostitution.
144
Campbell DeLong Resources Inc. and Portland Police Bureau. 1999. Crime Prevention in Overnight Lodging: A
Guide to Preventing Drug Activity, Prostitution, and Other Illegal Behavior in Hotels and Motels. [Online]. Available:
http://www.portlandonline.com/police/index.cfm?a=31556&c=29869. Accessed 22 February 2011.
145
146
147
Schmerler, Karin. January 2005. Disorder at Budget Motels. Problem-Oriented Guides for Police ProblemSpecific Guides Series, No. 30. US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. [Online].
Available: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e10042574.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2011.
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Ending Sex Trafficking in Oakland

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