Can adding stop lights, trimming trees and getting rid of abandoned buildings stop prostitution?
A Los Angeles City Council member Thursday said those and other non-law enforcement measures can have a big impact on halting hookers, and she unveiled a new study backing up those conclusions.
Sepulveda and Lankershim boulevards in the San Fernando Valley have long been focal points of prostitution, and City Councilwoman Nury Martinez released the results of two studies aimed at curbing the problem.
The studies — conducted by Drs. Henrik Minassians and David Lopez from California State University Northridge — do not focus on law enforcement tactics but rather the environmental factors that make the streets places where prostitution and human trafficking can flourish.
Both streets have miles of cheap motels, industrial buildings, dark alleyways and heavy traffic.
“My job is to protect our children and our neighborhoods,” Martinez said. “We can never arrest our way out of the human trafficking atrocities. We must be creative and persistent and use all of our city resources to create a better neighborhood for everyone involved.”
Martinez made the announcement at the corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Valerio Street in Van Nuys, which the Los Angeles Police Department has identified as a problem intersection.
The study identified 35 to 40 locations where the installation of street lights would make an impact, nine locations where trees must be trimmed, and other environmental factors including abandoned buildings and businesses that are focal points of illegal activity.
The LAPD said its Operations-Valley Bureau Human Trafficking Task Force in 2016 made 500 arrests, issued over 3,000 citations, and rescued 10 victims of human trafficking. Eight of the 10 victims were minors.
“We take human trafficking very seriously,” LAPD Deputy Chief Bob Green. “Working with Councilwoman Martinez, we are helping to rescue victims of this vicious crime and take dangerous criminals off the street, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to eradicate this problem in our community.”
Martinez also said that over $780,000 in funding has been identified to help implement some of the study’s findings, with crews starting Thursday to trim trees identified in the study. Light poles were also installed recently on some of the streets identified in the study.
“Over the past year we have taken on the huge task of cleaning up the prostitution activity that has frequented Sepulveda Boulevard and Lankershim Boulevard for decades,” Lt. Marc Evans of the Human Trafficking Task Force said. “I am excited because we are seeing the fruits of all the hard work starting to payoff.”
–City News Service