Police Pulling Wheels From Under Prostitutes’ Customers

Police officers in two states are taking a technique employed by federal drug enforcement agents and using it to combat local prostitution: They are seizing the assets of the traffickers--in this case, the autos of suspected customers.

Under a new program, undercover female officers lure would-be customers into offering them money for sex. Once the deal is made, other police officers rush in to arrest the suspect--and tow away his car.

The ploy, now used routinely in Portland and Wayne County, Ore., and in Detroit, has been surprisingly effective. Since initiating its program in October, 1988, Wayne County has seized 708 cars. Portland, which began its program in January, 1990, has seized 207 vehicles.

The suspect cannot retrieve his vehicle until he has paid for towing, storage and the cost of the decoy operation. In the cases of repeat offenders, police just keep the cars for good--and eventually auction them off.

BACKGROUND: The procedure is similar to that used by drug enforcement agents, who routinely seize houses, boats and cars belonging to people suspected of being drug dealers and auction them off after suspects are convicted.

Portland City Atty. Paul Elsner, who drafted his city’s ordinance, says the program is a marked improvement over the previous system, under which police officers simply gave a citation to men suspected of being prostitution customers.

“That didn’t have much of an impact--this does,” Elsner said. Portland authorities usually ask suspects to sign an agreement not to violate the law. “They know the next time we catch them, their car is ours,” Elsner said.

To be sure, in Portland, as in Detroit, there have been some slow learners. Elsner said he knows of at least two men who have been apprehended in different cars each time.

So far, the most expensive vehicle seized in Portland was a $100,000 tractor-trailer loaded with candy bars. It was seized last August and later was returned to the owner of the trucking company.

“That driver won’t use that vehicle again,” said Sgt. Roger Hediger, who tracks forfeitures for the Portland Police Department. “He was promptly fired, and the trucking company boss took the opportunity to remind his drivers not to pick up riders.

“The message got out,” Hediger says.

Not everyone in legal circles is happy with the statutes.

Jenny Cooke, a Portland attorney who is fighting the law, brands it “a convenient way to punish people without all those civil liberties getting in the way.”

“The police take your car before a court has decided whether you are innocent or guilty,” she said. “It’s clever, but I don’t think it’s constitutional.”

Cooke complains also that the procedure dilutes legal safeguards because disputes over impounded vehicles are handled in civil courts, where prosecutors merely have to show there is a “preponderance of evidence” rather than having to prove their allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

OUTLOOK: Defendants in both Portland and Detroit have appealed the actions, but both sides in the dispute expect the forfeiture laws to stand.

Meanwhile, Stevie Remington, executive director in Portland of the American Civil Liberties Union, concedes that the law has sparked inquiries from all over the nation. “They think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Remington said.

Jim Bodman, police legal adviser for Mobile, Ala., who recently contacted Portland’s city attorney’s office, said his city is considering the Portland program. “Taking a man’s auto, that’s stiff punishment,” he said. “It’s an excellent deterrent--we like that.”

But Charlotte Gardner, a state representative from Salisbury, N.C., wondered how a city can take away a vehicle that may be a family’s only car. “You want to stay away from penalizing innocent parties,” she said.