'SHAMING' HAS LONG HISTORY IN PEORIA

If you want to discuss the pros and cons of shaming people over
prostitution, the Peoria City Council can call on some local experts.

Our police chief and city manager may or may not have known this, but
the idea has been trotted out before. We've got at least one local
former attorney and two members of the council itself who could offer
some insight.

First, as the Journal Star's managing editor notes, shaming johns is
how Chase Ingersoll first made headlines 10 years ago. That's before
he was disbarred, which might be both noteworthy and
not-coincidental. Now the city appears to be following his lead.
Chase approves.

"I find it far more important to keep the sex trade off the streets
than I do keeping it off the Police Department's Web site," he posted
on his own Web site Tuesday, chastising a Journal Star editorial.
"Allow me to offer an alternative thought. It is criminality that
leads to these dire consequences, not the act of holding criminals
accountable."

Fresh out of law school, then 25-year-old Ingersoll started by filing
million-dollar civil suits against johns on behalf of beleaguered
neighbors. He used what he called "legal extortion," sending letters
to johns offering to settle out of court for $1,000. His efforts got
him in the Chicago Tribune and on NBC's "Dateline," but how much of
the proceeds actually went to neighborhood groups was always a little fuzzy.

A little later in his controversial career, the city paid $9,990 to
settle a civil lawsuit he'd filed for being falsely arrested. That
might also give the city pause.

Potential legal liability ranks high on the list of cautions raised
by At-large Councilman Gary Sandberg and 2nd District Councilwoman
Barbara Van Auken. Our police chief and city manager may or may not
have known that shaming someone because he was linked to a prostitute
has some history there, as well.

Sandberg was never even arrested, much less found guilty of anything,
when he was picked up for giving a "known prostitute" a ride in 1993.
The rookie officer who gave him a warning for making two right-hand
turns without a signal didn't recognize the councilman, but she did
recognize the rider as a convicted hooker. Still, his name was
splashed all over the place.

Sandberg has maintained he didn't know the woman's background but was
merely on a pizza run and granted her request for a ride.

Being publicly linked with a prostitute does have its effects. He and
Van Auken were married at the time. Neither has forgotten. "That's an
issue and an episode I don't want to talk about," she said, adding
the subject is still painful 12 years later.

On the other hand, its effects were not what you might suppose. The
smear did not stop Sandberg from being re-elected.

"It's affected me financially, but not politically," Sandberg said.
"Again, it was politically motivated. Unfortunately, that's the
danger. Because I think a lot of this is politically motivated."

Both council people prefer to focus on what happens next.

"That has not played a part in forming my opinion," Van Auken said.
"Going to law school - that played a part in forming my opinion."

And a lawyer assesses the potential risks vs. the potential benefits.
Mistakenly name someone for soliciting a prostitute, which is a
misdemeanor, and the city could pay big bucks.

"To me, if we're going to risk the liability, I would also like to do
drug users and sellers," she says. "If we're going to risk it, let's
go for the source."

Yes. Odds are excellent that drugs cause prostitution rather than the
other way around. And Sandberg takes that logic a step further.

"If we're doing it for a misdemeanor, why not for more serious
crimes? Why not for murder?" he said.

Good question. Why not for rape? You have to wonder if shaming will
get that far. Sandberg predicts it will blow up in the Police
Department's face. And he's going to let it. He has his own ideas
about deterrents.

"If we do anything wrong and there's economic consequences . . . I
think it should come out of the police chief's salary and the city
manager's salary," he said.