PORTLAND, Ore. — Support is growing among city and county commissioners to end funding for police decoy stings targeting adults who try to buy sex, as well as a diversion program that trains those caught in stings in the police theory that all sex work is harmful.
After a failed bid earlier this year to decriminalize prostitution in the state Legislature, local sex workers have turned their attention to the police practice of setting up decoy stings that end in dozens of arrests for commercial sexual solicitation — a charge that implies only an attempt to purchase sex from someone willing to sell it, and does not include situations involving force, abuse or people under the age of 18.
Sex workers and their supporters have testified at recent meetings of the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, calling for an end to stings and a diversion program called the Sex Buyers Accountability and Diversion Program.
Elle Stanger, co-chair of the Oregon Sex Workers Committee, testified at a Portland city council meeting last Wednesday, where commissioners were mulling the annual fall budget adjustment.
Stanger asked commissioners to halt funding for police decoy stings — one of the two types of missions run by the Portland Police Bureau’s Human Trafficking Unit. Police set up “buyer suppression stings” under the theory that arresting people for trying to purchase sex will reduce demand for such services, and will ultimately result in the reduction of sex trafficking — where people are forced to engage in sex work, or where people under the age of 18 are involved.
“Even if you personally don’t believe adults should be able to work sex or purchase it consensually, it is a myth that people who pay for sexual services are inherently harmful and dangerous,” Stanger said.
Police aren’t helping sex workers or people experiencing trafficking by arresting their clients, according to Bella Michelle, a sex worker and trafficking survivor who spoke at the city budget meeting.
“Clients I met through sex work helped me escape an abusive relationship with my kids’ father, who was also my pimp,” Michelle said. “Sex workers want rights. Giving us our rights would ensure our safety and protection from predators. Please stop dehumanizing prostitutes and please stop funding decoy stings between consenting adults.”
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty paused testimony to tell Michelle and Stanger that she wants to help them achieve their goals during the next round of budget negotiations in June — when bigger policy changes will be on the table.
“I just wanted to tell our last speaker that I look forward to working with her and the committee to move their proposal forward in our regular budget process,” Hardesty said.
Court records detailing police descriptions of these stings portray transactions where men generally agree to something vague, like a “date” or “full service,” and are arrested by undercover officers when they show up outside a specified hotel.
In January last year, a 55-year-old Portland man responded to an online ad offering a “date” with a photo of a woman who was “dressed provocatively,” according to court records. Police arrested him after he allegedly agreed to pay $100 for half an hour with the woman at a Ramada Inn.
A month later, another sting caught a 42-year-old man from Beaverton after he responded to a police decoy ad on the website MegaPersonals.com. The ad showed four photos of a woman “posed provocatively,” according to a probable cause affidavit. He called the number on the ad and agreed to an hour of “full service,” which prosecutors say means sex. Based on a euphemism, police arrested the man when he arrived at the same Ramada Inn.
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