OAKLAND – As the sun set on a recent day, police arrested a teenage prostitute strutting down International Boulevard in a short black dress and gold heels – "Daddy" tattooed on her neck – before pulling over her pimp in a car.
Minutes later, they arrested another pimp with two more teenagers and, a few blocks away, yet another teenager whom they tried to coax into identifying her pimp.
In this city, which Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda, calls the epicenter of prostitution in Northern California, authorities are taking a new approach to combat the world's oldest trade.
Traditionally, police have focused on getting prostitutes off the street by arresting them – only to rearrest them a short time later because of the light sentences they receive.
But when the Oakland Police Department noticed a dramatic increase in underage prostitutes a few years ago, it set out to put away pimps and treat underage prostitutes as victims.
Under a bill by Swanson, Oakland's approach would become a pilot program in Alameda County that could become a model for the state.
Assembly Bill 499 would connect minors caught in the sex trade with social services in an effort to provide them a lifeline out of prostitution.
Judges would have the option of placing minors in a diversionary program instead of on probation. Police and prosecutors would work with minors who want to bring charges against their pimps.
"Some of these young people were in the foster care system, some are runaways and homeless, and many have been sexually abused," said Swanson, whose bill cleared the Assembly on a 72-0 vote and will be heard next month in the Senate.
More jail time for pimps?
Swanson said AB 499 would lead to enhanced sentences for pimps if Oakland's pilot program is replicated statewide.
"By working with the victims – and that's what these young people are – and getting their cooperation, we can go after the pimps and prosecute them for sexual abuse so they don't victimize any more people," Swanson said.
Convictions for human trafficking and sexual assault now carry sentences that range from four to 14 years. But someone convicted of kidnapping a minor could be sentenced to life in prison.
In Oakland, police have been working with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office to build multiple-count cases that AB 499 supporters hope would be expanded.
Lt. Kevin Wiley, who established the Oakland Police Child Exploitation Unit a decade ago, said the goal is to link a pimp to every sexual assault an underage prostitute has suffered because of him.
"If he's setting her up to be raped by a man, he's now responsible for that individual act as well," Wiley said. "Our District Attorney's Office has researched these laws, they have gone for the throat, and the message has been sent."
Wiley blames "the pimp-prostitute subculture" that's been glamorized in urban culture for the growth of prostitution. Pimps prey on abused children, he said, showering them with attention that they never received at home.
"These guys sell them a load of goods about traveling to Vegas and Reno, wearing nice clothes and driving fancy cars – the fast life (and the) ongoing drama," Wiley said.
Victims, not criminals
Children's advocates, including the Sexually Exploited Minors Network, a group of Alameda County social service and law enforcement agencies that asked Swanson to carry the bill, say such children should not be treated like criminals.
Currently, minors detained for prostitution go through the juvenile justice system with little treatment. Existing law also requires the release within 48 hours of a minor who is suspected of being abused or neglected, unless a petition has been filed to declare the child a dependent of the court.
"This legislation will allow the courts to get involved so they can help, after proper evaluation, identify the young people who are involved and provide them with alternatives," Swanson said.
Under AB 499, a pilot program would be created until 2012 in Alameda County. It would establish a standardized training curriculum for law enforcement, judges and social service agencies to assess and treat sexually abused minors.
Recognizing the state's budget crisis, the legislation calls for use of existing local resources to minimize the fiscal impact.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, hopes the legislation ultimately will be expanded statewide.
"It's certainly something that could be used in Los Angeles," Bass said.
Prostitution increasing
According to some law enforcement officials, prostitution has increased on the streets of many cities as an alternative to drug dealing, which carries harsher prison sentences.
Young prostitutes bring in the most money, and the number of sexually exploited minors has tripled in Northern California since 2002, according to the groups sponsoring the measure.
Wiley asks his officers "to look beneath the surface" for the root causes of a particular case.
"You see a girl out there that's being exploited, but you don't know what put her in that pickle," he said. "That's why training is crucial, a coordinated effort, the advocacy portion, to build that trust, that foundation."
Wiley said AB 499 "formalizes our law enforcement response" to the problem "making it victim-centered, victim-driven, as opposed to offender cases."
"You can't completely lose the enforcement tool," Wiley said. "But you don't want to set the law where you absolutely have to treat them all as offenders."
Limited resources
But there are limits to what the cash-strapped Oakland Police Department can do. The Child Exploitation Unit has only four officers.
Meanwhile, Oakland has one of the highest crime rates in the state. Wiley's unit has only enough resources to conduct once-a-week sweeps in areas frequented by prostitutes.
Last year, 443 females were arrested for prostitution in the city, including 29 minors, Wiley said. But on streets in some sections of International Boulevard and San Pablo Avenue, each day brings a bazaar of sex for sale.
Officer Jim Saleda, an Iraq war veteran who has worked in the Child Exploitation Unit since its inception, has seen girls as young as 11 put out on the street.
Most minors Saleda sees come from poor families. But he said no demographic group is immune; he once picked up a girl from the affluent East Bay community of Kensington.
Saleda calls pimps who prey on children "savages and parasites."
"We're never going to end this," he said at the end of a 15-hour day. "But anything we do to reduce it, I'm for it."