Policing prostitutes takes on different attitude

POLICE insist they are not a “soft touch” after introducing a more lenient approach to policing prostitution in Hull.

Streetwalkers caught soliciting are now given a “three strikes and you’re out” street caution lasting three months.

If they get any more than three “yellow cards”, they face arrest.

The cards contain information about organisations which can help them out of sex work and have been hailed a success with the number of prostitutes working falling sharply.

At the same time 152 kerb crawlers have been arrested – up from five the previous year – and made to sign “acceptable behaviour contracts” while 86 offenders have been put on rehabilitation courses, at a cost of 200 from their own pocket.

The full-day workshop is said to have such a deterrent effect that to date none of the attendees has been rearrested.

Det Sgt Billy Butler, of Humberside Police, said the women’s “chaotic lifestyles” meant they could not change their behaviour overnight through consistently being arrested.

He said: “Our intelligence suggest kerb crawlers visiting the area have reduced significantly – about 70 per cent.

“This is backed up by results from covert operations and plain-clothes patrols in the area.

“In this time not one single woman has been sent to court, yet we have removed 21 of the 51 current known working women who work on the streets from our monthly meeting.”

In Hull everything from anti-social behaviour orders, kerb crawler initiatives, outreach work and drop-ins with drug counsellors has been tried in the past, with limited success.

Agencies like Hull Lighthouse Project provide help to prostitutes, including an evening drop-in three times a week from a converted bus as well as a daytime support service.

Drug-dependent prostitutes are able to fast-track drug treatment programmes via the Women and Children’s Hospital.