Police are mandated to ensure safer streets, yet police street sweeps may actually endanger Ottawa’s sex workers by forcing them to engage in unsafe behaviour.
A coalition of six organizations in Ottawa recently called on the Ottawa Police Service to put a moratorium on making mass arrests of sex workers, known as ‘street sweeps.’
The coalition is comprised of the Sexual Assault Support Centre, Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate, and Resist (POWER), the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa, Families of Sisters in Spirit, the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.
The coalition’s call for the moratorium came after the police announced that there appears to be a pattern in the deaths of sex workers in Ottawa over the past 21 years and they say there is possibly a serial killer responsible.
“Please be advised that if more sex workers are harmed in Ottawa, our clients are prepared to argue that the harm was caused, in part or in whole, by the negligence of your organization in investigating the pattern of violence and in providing law enforcement services to women in the community,” said a letter written to the police by the coalition’s law firm Galldin Law.
Street sweeps are dangerous because the fear of being seen and arrested by police often results in sex workers not being able to take safety precautions to protect themselves from potentially dangerous clients. The sex workers must rush into isolated situations to avoid police arrest.
“Well-lit areas, prolonged conversations with potential clients, and working in groups are all mechanisms that expose women to police arrest, criminal charges, and punitive red zones as conditions of their arrest or probation,” explains the letter from the coalition.
Street sweeps are also detrimental to sex workers because they establish the police as the enemy, to be hid from, not as a source of help.
A study by POWER reports that “street-based workers were consistent in their conviction that the police are not a resource.”
Many sex workers interviewed in the report by POWER said they had bad relationships with the police and they would not seek help from them. The sex workers also said they feared that if the police recognized them as sex workers, the officers would ‘call them out’ during their personal lives, not only while they were working.
The study by POWER says this relationship with police is problematic because “when sex workers are unwilling to turn to the police for assistance, they become even easier targets for predators who assault sex workers.”
It is also interesting to note that most sex work does not happen on the streets. According to POWER’s report, only 5 to 10 per cent of sex work takes place on the streets. It makes sense that police stop prioritizing these sweeps and start looking into ways to prevent the majority of sex work, which does not take place on streets.
Of course, it is important to consider that it is ultimately the police’s job to arrest those who are breaking the law. The coalition’s demand puts the police in a difficult situation because; on the one hand they are supposed to uphold the law, yet on the other they are supposed to make streets safe.
It is understandable that, in many Ottawa neighbourhoods, citizens do not want sex work taking place on the streets because of conceptions that sex work is associated with drugs and other crime.
However, the fact is that sex workers are in danger because fear of arrest is putting them into vulnerable situations. Surely, the majority of the community would not want lives put at risk for public nuisance arrests.
It would be unreasonable to suggest that the police should do nothing to stop sex work from taking place in Ottawa’s neighbourhoods. However, the police should be only taking reactive approaches to arresting sex workers, not proactive ones like street sweeps.
If the police happen to see sex work outwardly taking place in a way that is harmful to the community, officers can go in and stop that. They can also be more stringent about arresting sex workers in areas near schools, community centres and places of religious worship.
The police, however, should not be prioritizing measures like street sweeps that proactively target sex workers who are trying to make a living while staying safe.
The only proactive measure that the police should be taking is the implementation of policies to ensure that sex workers feel comfortable going to the police when abused or mistreated.
This process can start by listening to the coalition, recognizing street sweeps are not the best option and compromising on alternative strategies.
The police must do all they can to foster an environment in which sex workers view the police as a source of protection instead of the enemy. It is by doing so that there can be safer streets for sex workers and the community.