Police Board to look at sex-trade changes
Posted March 21, 2012 8:11 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – As we told you yesterday, the Vancouver Police Board will meet today to consider proposals on how officers should deal with sex trade workers on the Downtown Eastside. However, some in the community are questioning the department’s sincerity.
Jamie Lee Hamilton has spoken out on behalf of sex trade workers in the neighbourhood for years and has also appeared as a witness at the Missing Women Inquiry.
The proposals in a draft policy that will be looked at by the police board today include only arresting women as a last resort and making their safety a top priority. But Hamilton feels the department lacks some credibility on the safety front.
“What’s happening is the police come down and will park right by [sex-trade workers] and will break them up if they’re standing together. For security purposes, they like to stand together or in clusters,” he explains.
Hamilton doesn’t think the situation has improved much since Robert Pickton roamed the neighbourhood. He says while the killings have stopped, the violence hasn’t. “It’s still the same predators coming down. The police have basically continued to push women into this containment zone — out of sight, out of mind.”
“Women in the sex trade down there are saying, ‘They pushed us down here. It’s like we don’t even exist,'” she adds.
The biggest problem in her mind from all of this is the fact that women are still not reporting acts of violence against them. That’s why she’s calling for greater a police presence, pointing out many don’t even know who the VPD’s sex trade liaison officer is.
Hamilton agrees changes must come, but believes the department has some work to do in regaining trust. “Many of the women I talk to still — and I go down there on weekends — say that it doesn’t seem sincere.”
This afternoon’s meeting is set for 1 p.m. at VPD headquarters.
