Milwaukee has a growing problem with prostitution. It appears to have gotten out of control on the near south side. That's according to residents who testified at the Common Council's Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday.
Ald. Bob Donovan chairs the panel and represents part of the near south side. He says prostitution there is nothing new.
"You want to engage in prostitution on the south side, you go to certain parts of National Ave., certain parts of Greenfield Ave., certain parts of Lincoln Ave. That's been the case. But I will tell you this: I have never seen it as bad as it is now. Blatant, blatant," Donovan says.
Donovan says, as a result, the quality of life in those neighborhoods is deteriorating. Cynthia Green agrees. She says she sees men trolling her neighborhood at all hours, searching for a prostitute. Green says sometimes when she's taking a walk she feels vulnerable.
"If I'm wearing a blouse that's a little low-cut, I will take my arms and cover my breasts, because to me it looks like that's what they're staring right at. It makes me very, very uncomfortable. I don’t know if they're going to follow me to my home. I don't know what they're going to do," Green says.
The activity also makes local pastor Joel Jaeger feel uncomfortable. He says prostitutes do business in skimpy outfits, in broad daylight. And they appear to be hooked on drugs.
"Most of the women are clearly high when they're out there. We've seen women passed out, we've picked up drug needles all over the place, even on our school property, where they've had to climb the fence to get in," Jaeger says.
"Syringes, condoms, zombies -- these are all the terms that over and over again we all hear, and we know what's going on," says Milwaukee Police Sergeant Kieran Sawyer. He says as more women have become addicted to heroin, more have succumbed to prostitution to pay for the drug.
So any solution must include treatment, according to Jeanne Geraci, executive director of the Benedict Center.
"Arresting women with no other intervention is a costly revolving door, and I think it's one that frustrates your constituents -- as well as law enforcement -- because there's not enough evidence to hold them, right? So they are right back on the streets," Geraci says.
Geraci says Milwaukee has good programs in place. But funding is scarce, so the city and county should chip in.
Deanne Lawson is with the Inner Beauty Center, another group that advocates for women involved in prostitution. She says the city should do more to police the men who pay women for sex.
"The increase of prostitution on Greenfield (Ave.) is driven by demand. This is a basic economic principle. If you don't have the demand, you won't have the supply. So the buyers need to be addressed," Lawson says.
The advocacy groups argue that while women are breaking the law by selling their bodies, most are the victims of pimps or human traffickers.
At the end of Thursday's meeting, Ald. Donovan says he learned prostitution is "far more complex" than most people realize. He says his public safety panel will continue to examine the issue, searching for both short and long-term solutions.
