Move Along: Community-Based Research into the Policing of Sex Work in Washington, D.C

Abstract

IN 2005, THE CITY COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON, D.C., PROPOSED SEVERAL NEW anti-prostitution laws. The Prostitution Nuisance Abatement Amendment Act, the Omnibus Public Safety Act, (1) and the Anti-Prostitution Vehicle Impoundment Amendment Act aimed to expand the powers of police and other regulatory authorities to crack down on street- and place-based work. The most high profile of the proposed legislative changes was a provision that allowed police to exclude people they thought were engaged in prostitution from certain parts of the city. This element of the law provoked public outcry from civil libertarians, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of the National Capital Area, and attorneys from the Public Defender Service who were concerned about its potentially broad limitation of public assembly and free movement in the nation's capital. In the communities affected by anti-prostitution policing, these civil rights were already being trampled by over-zealous police officers determined to stamp out prostitution as part of quality of life campaigns. The was framed by supporters in the city council as a new initiative that would be tough on crime. For all intents and purposes, however, it legitimized unconstitutional police behavior that had long existed in the District. (2) Debates over the laws created a political opportunity for communities affected by policing and community outreach organizations to expose the longstanding problem of police abuse and to challenge anti-prostitution policies. These groups formed the Alliance for a Safe and Diverse D.C., which worked to stop these laws and publicize the preexisting problems caused by anti-prostitution policies in the District. Some city council members were concerned about reports of police misconduct, but others pressed Alliance representatives to produce hard data to prove that a problem really existed. Despite widespread concern about the laws, particularly the prostitution-free zone, the council passed many of the provisions as part of the lengthy Omnibus Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act (D.C. Act 16-445) at the end of summer in 2006. In 2007, the Alliance for a Safe and Diverse received financial support to systematically chronicle for the first time the harms caused by the criminalization of in the District. The project responded in part to requests for proof of widespread police abuse, but the research process was also an organizing tool. It helped community members see their experiences within broader patterns that could inform their resistance to police brutality and oppression. In May 2008, this community-based research was published in a report entitled Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, D.C. Below we detail the process of the research, its results, and activist efforts in 2008 to use the report for community mobilization and policy change. The community researchers who designed the study were interested in documenting the effect of the laws, including the prostitution-free zone provision, and filling a gap in understanding about policing in Thus, though the study questioned participants about the effects of the police powers granted by the legislation, the larger research goal was to understand the effects of the longstanding approach to commercial in the District of Columbia for people in the areas prioritized by the Metropolitan Police Department for law enforcement activities. Policing Sex Work: Looking Through the Broken Window The term sex work refers to a wide variety of sexual commerce, including the provision of sexual services in brothels and massage parlors, the street-based trade, exotic dancing, and many other forms of negotiated sexual exchange for remuneration (Miller, 2006). Some forms of are informal. For example, street vendors or day laborers occasionally have for money to augment income. …