Critics say
nuisance law won’t
stop prostitution

Targeting pimps would be
more effective, social services
advocates say

By Linda Aragon
Star-Bulletin

A lawyer and social services advocates say the city's new approach to get prostitutes off Waikiki's streets is not the answer.

"If this does actually work and women have to leave Waikiki, then someone else will replace them," said Kimberly Gallant, an outreach worker for the Waikiki Health Center.

The Rev. Frank Chong, executive director of the Waikiki Health Center, said if lawmakers are serious about ridding the streets of prostitution, they need to target pimps, who control the sex industry. "You're getting rid of a nuisance but you're not taking care of the problem."

On Friday night, police served eight women with civil complaints alleging that they use the streets of Waikiki for prostitution. A ninth woman named in the complaint has moved away.

If upheld in Honolulu District Court, the complaint would ban the women from Waikiki during prime evening hours.

Yesterday, Mayor Jeremy Harris and city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle announced that since criminal penalties have not been successful against prostitution, taking the women to civil court may keep the streetwalkers off the street.

"This new approach will allow us to use the nuisance law to remove prostitution," Harris said. "The streamlined approach allows us to ban prostitutes from Waikiki for two years, between 8 p.m to 6 a.m."

The women targeted were "well-known by police," said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mitchell Roth. Under the nuisance law, the courts can prohibit a person or a group from using a certain area for illicit activity.

Criminal attorney Earle Partington said the nuisance law usually applies to a specific place such as a house that is being used as a brothel.

In this case, he said, the city has included a map of Waikiki in the complaint claiming that an entire portion of town should be off-limits, and that's too broad an area.

The city's action is loosely modeled after a successful law enforcement method in California, where banning repeat offenders from certain areas has kept some communities drug- and gang-free zones, said Roth, who worked with this approach in Los Angeles.

"The city has worked long and hard to build a visitor industry that is friendly to families," Harris said. "One of the things that flies is the face of that is street prostitution as it is in Waikiki."

City Councilman Duke Bainum, who represents Waikiki, said when guests came to visit him recently, instead of checking out the beach, they were watching the very visible streetwalkers.

"This is part of a broad effort to take back these streets and to control the activities that limit the visitors' experience," Bainum said.

City officials said they are also educating tourists that the "johns," or customers, are equally at risk of receiving penalties if they engage in prostitution.

Harris said officials also are exploring the "shame" factor by speaking with the Japanese consul general about publicizing names of convicted "johns" in newspapers in Japan.