By the time the year-old from Montana and her year-old friend were released from the city jail on a recent night, police had taken one other key item into evidence: their clothes.
The practice of seizing the clothes of suspected prostitutes is just one in an arsenal of enforcement tools that frustrated officers hope will put a dent in the revolving door of misdemeanor prostitution arrests. In a time of shrinking budgets, when arrest often means little more than a few hours of inconvenience, police say they must turn to more extreme methods. Since last month, officers also have embraced a hotly debated new state law that makes loitering with the intent to commit prostitution illegal.
Critics denounce the paper clothing as sexist and possibly unconstitutional, noting that no other criminal suspects are treated this way. But vice detectives say the jumpsuit gimmick--practiced quietly in Costa Mesa for the past five years--is a legal and effective way to make the arrest process as unpleasant as possible. The goal: to slow the steady stream of streetwalkers, even if only for one night. Loren Wyrick said. The heart of the prostitution corridor that has spurred the crackdown is a stretch of Harbor Boulevard dotted with office parks and frequented by noon-hour business traffic.
Girls as young as 13 and seasoned streetwalkers with as many as 30 prior arrests have been hauled through the book-and-release process in recent months.
One woman--seven months pregnant--was arrested twice in a two-hour period last month and again the following day after she shed her jumpsuit for a change of work clothes stashed somewhere nearby. Another, eager to get back to work, once cut her white paper suit into hot pants, wrapped a belt around it and was back on the street within minutes of her release, Wyrick said.
