During the first four months of , Costa Mesa police arrested more people for prostitution than they had in the five previous years combined. But why the sudden focus and intensity? According to statements made by Glass and other Costa Mesa officials, there may be several reasons. None of them are good from a public policy standpoint β at least not if you believe the first job of police should be protecting public safety rather than scoring public relations points or helping the city increase tax revenue.
The special squad, composed of around 10 officers, had historically taken on a broad array of complex investigations. But a series of prostitution stings earlier this year changed that. The stings, which involved undercover officers posing as prostitution clients in order to bust those selling sex, yielded 32 sex-worker arrests in two weeks. While the shift may be fine for making the investigative team look and feel more useful, diverting attention from serious crime to stopping prostitution seems ill-suited to making Costa Mesa a safer or more pleasant place to live.
But police may have an additional motive for the new focus. Most of the arrests took place at one of two Costa Mesa motels. The motels attract all sorts of vice crime, say city leaders β drug use, prostitution β and policing them is a drain on public-safety resources.
Rather than reconsider their investment in stopping adults from deciding whom they have sex with or what they put in their bodies, officials envision driving the cheap motels out of business to make room for high-end hotels housing units. As the Register reported last October, the scheme could make the land much more valuable to the city. Some Costa Mesa city officials want to go ever further. In , the City Council banned motel stays of longer than 30 days and voted to fine motel owners for excessive nuisance complaints on their properties.
Last April, the city filed a public nuisance complaint aimed at shuttering the New Harbor Inn. The only reason sex workers and drug users warrant so much policing is because we have unnecessarily criminalized these people.
