CITY STREETS BEING SWEPT CLEAN

Police Doing What They Can To Clean Up Downtown Core

Some Brampton husbands are coming home to their wives without their
cars-- and with a lot of explaining to do.

Seizing a "john's" vehicle on the spot is the latest twist in the war
against street prostitution in downtown Brampton, according to Peel
police Vice Unit detectives.

It is now the price men-- most of them married-- will pay for trying
to buy sex on the street in Brampton.

However, the potential to contract the highly contagious Hepatitis C
virus or other communicable diseases is the price their families
could end up paying, according to Vice Det. Randy Cowan.

"It's highly probable that anyone in the sex trade industry is
subjected to communicable diseases and could pass them on," Cowan
warns. "There's a very high risk, when you're engaged with a sex
trade worker, that you'll contract a communicable disease."

As for the car seizures, that's an innovative approach police are
hoping will help curb streetwalking.

A two-night police crackdown this week on residential streets in the
northwest corner of Queen Street East and Kennedy Road saw seven cars
seized and nine men charged. That was just 6 1/2 hours of work on a
Monday and Tuesday evening, Cowan points out.

The cars are held for bail hearings. To get them back, the registered
owner-- whether that is the man caught trying to buy sex or his wife,
girlfriend, employer or mom-- has to go to court and convince a
justice of the peace that the car won't be used the same way again.

"The law is there to prevent the continuation of the offence," Cowan
says. "A vehicle is so important to their mode of operation. They
need a car to cruise the area to pick up girls, so it makes sense (to
seize the car)."

A 22-year-old arrested Monday night on Beech Street begged for
leniency because the car he was driving belonged to his mother.
Another man, with a child seat in the back of his car, told arresting
officers if they took his vehicle he would have to go home and pack his bags.

It's an old problem

"It's a problem that's been around a long time, we're just trying to
come up with new ways to deal with it," Cowan says of the local
street sex trade. "If there was no fear of getting caught and we have
some tolerance for this, there'd be a lot more of it because of the
amount of willing johns available."

Cowan says a handful of complaints are received from residents in the
area every summer. However, he sees the problem as a public safety issue, too.

"Our biggest concern is public safety, and these prostitutes are
members of the public," Cowan says. "There's no way we can protect
them when they're plying their trade. If we don't do anything about
it, these women are out there at risk of being robbed, sexually
assaulted, assaulted."

That point was punctuated by last week's beating and sexual assault
of a 22-year-old woman in the Brampton Cemetery at Church Street East
and Beech Street.

"Even though they don't particularly like us, it's for their own
protection," Cowan says of the work of the Vice Unit.

In the downtown area, where rooming houses are breeding grounds for
crack houses and the transient prostitute's lifestyle, the problem
surfaces into the public eye in the summer months. In winter, the
women ply their trade in area doughnut shops, plazas and motels,
mostly out of view of residents. But when the evenings are warm, the
same cars can be seen circling the neighbourhoods, driving up and
down streets in the area-- men on the prowl for a $40 sexual favour.

"It just so happens that ($30 to $40) is the price of a single use of
crack cocaine," Cowan points out.

"It's obvious what they're doing it for," he says. "We've done
surveillance on prostitutes and watched them go from a john to a crack house."

"Johns aren't addicted to anything, so it's a lot easier to control
the johns" he says.

There are approximately 28 women who work the streets off and on in
the area, according to police. The youngest is just 16.

"She started when she was 14," Cowan says.

The oldest is 52, and most range in age from 22 to 48, with an
average age of 34.

While juvenile prostitution has also been a focus of the unit-- which
won a national award last year for recovering children in the sex
trade and successfully returning them home for good-- the women who
work the street in the downtown area are a different breed, according
to Cowan. There are no pimps involved, and many are just doing what
they can to support their drug habit.

Vice Unit officers spent the weekend rounding up and charging
prostitutes. Four women were charged. Monday and Tuesday, they zeroed
in on their customers.

"The johns have a lot more to lose," Cowan says. "They're usually
married, family guys, and they usually expect anonymity when they're
out. If we deter the johns from the area, then the prostitutes won't
be out on the street. You dry up the customer base. If there's no
demand, there'll be no supply."

"If a john thinks he's going to get caught, I don't think he would
engage," Cowan says.

No 'typical' john

There is no "typical" john, he says, but locally they range in age
from 22 to almost 60.

"They've done it on foot, on bicycles, in cars, one guy was on a
minibike," Cowan says. "We've had city workers, sales people, professionals..."

It's been going on in this area for about the past 10 years, he says,
and the customers come from all over Brampton.

Monday night, potential customers appeared to be particularly
nervous. Two undercover female officers had discussions with
potential clients, but only a few agreed to their terms.

The response was quick, though. It took just four minutes into the
sting before a man stopped to talk to one of the undercover officers
on Beech Street. He had errands to run, and said he would be back.
True to his word, he returned about an hour later. He lives in the
area, and walked from home, trying to convince the officer to go with
him to the underground parking garage at his nearby apartment
building. When she refused, he returned in his truck and closed the
deal. Plainclothes officers descended on his SUV, which he nearly
rammed into a police vehicle. He was arrested and his SUV seized.

"She came on to me first," was another man's explanation as he was
handcuffed and searched just moments after agreeing to pay for sex.

Cowan points out there are only three prostitution offences in
Canadian law books-communicating in public, operating a bawdy house
and living off the avails. "Prostitution is legal in Canada," he
says. "The soliciting in public has to stop."

"It's zero tolerance and we hope this acts as a deterrent."