KEEP PEORIA SEX TRADE OFF THE WEB

Peoria's plan to put pictures of alleged prostitutes and their
customers on the Web just doesn't feel right. Whatever happen to
innocent until proven guilty?

City Manager Randy Oliver says he wants to protect older
neighborhoods, which is understandable. Not many people want to live
where sex is traded openly. Posting faces, names, addresses and
charges on the Internet is intended to "make (people) think twice,"
he says. And maybe it will.

The proposal to shame those accused of buying and selling sex follows
closely Oliver's proposal to remove basketball hoops from city
streets and, before that, his decision to post "shaming signs" on
rundown properties. Last year he introduced measures intended to make
it easier to demolish boarded-up homes and fine their owners. While
his concerns and creative approaches are welcome, vigilance should
not be confused with vigilantism. Posting pictures of accused johns
and prostitutes comes uncomfortably close to the latter.

We are impressed with the arguments made by Kevin Lyons, Peoria
County's law-and-order state's attorney. Mistakes can be made, he
says. The wrong persons can be arrested. Charges can be dropped. Not
many people who call up the Web site to see if they can find anyone
they know will take all of this into consideration.

But even if postings were to be confined to those who are convicted,
Lyons has other concerns. He worries that the publicity and shame
could destroy families, cost people their jobs, even push some
individuals to suicide. He's seen it happen before.

Beyond that, prostitution and solicitation are misdemeanors, and
Lyons doesn't think the highly public shaming fits the crime. But why
limit the exposure to those who traffic in sex? If protecting
neighborhoods is the goal, then why not post photos of drug buyers
and drug sellers? Nobody hurts neighborhoods more than they do. If
deterring crime is the desire, then how about posting photos of
shoplifters or those who take change from the office copy machine?
Drunk drivers sometimes kill people. Do we want Peoria to post photos
of alleged drunks?

The question comes down to whether we want government to be in the
business of shaming - Lyons doesn't think we do - or of policing and
arresting and charging and fining. About to say you'd like it to do
both? Well, you might think of some places where the two are one and
the same. And then think again.

Not that shame doesn't have its place. The Journal Star publishes
names of those who are charged with soliciting for prostitution
(though not those who are just arrested). That is embarrassing, even
without a pictorial highlight. It is also newsworthy. Neighborhood
associations are free to post photos on Web sites of their own,
should they think that useful. Governments should refrain.

No one should take this as an apology for those who sell or buy sex.
Prostitution is not a victimless crime. Its victims include
prostitutes themselves, neighborhoods and families. Men who buy sex
risk their own lives and those of their unwitting sex partners when
they go back home. If that doesn't dissuade them, then the threat of
a photo may not either. In any case, it doesn't justify the city
going into the business of painting scarlet letters on their faces.

The City Council should tell its city manager and police department
to back off. There must be a better way than this.