Complaints about sex workers and kerb crawlers have forced police to adopt a new tougher strategy for an operation to tackle prostitution in the area.
“Prostitution is a massive priority for us in the Shacklewell ward,” said PC Andrew Northover from the Shacklewell Safer Neighbourhoods Team. “It will be a long project where officers from the central unit and other boroughs will be drafted in.”
The strategy, named the “Nordic model” and pioneered by Sgt Richard Berns of Brownswood ward, focuses on the arrest of kerb crawlers as opposed to the sex workers themselves. Prostitutes are only arrested after they have had two street cautions from the police.
It has already had success in other Hackney and Islington wards. An operation in Finsbury Park last May resulted in 11 arrests, 6 of which were for soliciting a sex worker in public.
In Sweden, where the strategy was developed, a 70 per cent drop was recorded in its sex-trade business.
Described by PC Northover as a “historical problem,” the presence of prostitutes has been a long term issue for Shacklewell residents.
Michelle Watson*, 19, a mother and resident said that it has “always been here in the 7 years I have lived here. Every night whenever I go out, they’re there.
“Once in a while they’re a bit rowdy. It is a problem. It is inappropriate for them to be there,” she said.
It is hoped that the strategy will provide a more enduring solution to the issue.
“You will find that the women will often reduce the number of appearances out of fear of using up their cautions,” said PCSO Zaka Ullar from the Shacklewell Team. “Drivers often also don’t come to the same area again.”
*Name changed by request
(Photo: Deniooo)
