Prostitution sting includes diversion

Six Battle Creek woman were arrested on charges of prostitution Tuesday, but no one went to jail.

They were taken to a church where instead of an orange jail suit, they were offered help.

The Prostitution Diversion Battle Creek program is designed for law enforcement and social agencies to work together to help women stop working as prostitutes.

“This was a start in the right direction,” said Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker. “It exemplifies that police work is a joint community effort.”

In an operation Tuesday afternoon, police officers took six women into custody either while they worked as street walkers or after advertising on internet sex sites.

Officers posing as customers arrested four on the street and two more at a southside motel after they agreed to meet and have sex for money.

But instead of taking them to jail, each woman met with a representative from a community social service agency and was given the option of discussing their participation in a diversion program.

Each of the women agreed to diversion and all six were taken to First Congregational Church at 145 Capital Ave. N.E., where they met with a trauma-informed professional from places like Sexual Assault Services, Woman's Co-Op, SAFE Place and others to explain the program and determine their needs.

“The idea is to give them access to services like housing, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, job training, child care, health issues, and peer support,” said Rev. Emily Joye McGaughy, associate pastor at First Congregational Church.

“We are getting people into services that exist in the community,” she said.

The women will meet with professionals to determine their immediate and long-term needs and must continue the 90-day program or prostitution charges will be requested from Prosecutor David Gilbert.

It’s an idea officials began considering nearly two years ago. In August 2014, about 30 people began meeting to find alternatives to just arresting women working in prostitution.

“It was always investigation leading to arrests and then charges and then a revolving door going through the system and right back on the street,” Blocker said. “What we are starting is to test what is our community capability to have a better outcome.”

Each of the women will have contact within a week with a case manager at Woman’s Co-Op and work on finding other methods of support than prostitution.

“We needed someone from the social services arena to join with our work to give the women options,” Blocker said. “Then you have a carrot and stick.”

McGaughy said many of the women had substance abuse addictions. One woman had a seizure while being interviewed at the church.

“There were a lot of unexpected variables,” she said. “They have lots of problems and they like to talk a lot when they are in crisis. They had stories that were being told for the first time to someone, or for the first time in a long time.”

Both Blocker and McGaughy said it was the easy choice for the women on Tuesday to take a diversion rather than jail, so the real results of the program won’t be known for weeks.

“In 90 days we will get a better picture and better understanding of how well we did,” Blocker said. “I am not looking at astounding numbers, and if we get one out of six, that is one more than I had yesterday.”

But both he and McGaughy said the program was a start and an example of several agencies including law enforcement working together.

“This is like something getting its legs,” McGaughy said. “It's like after you have been practicing and now actually playing the game and stepping out on the field.

“We did good work today and now we will see what happens.”

Contact Trace Christenson at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson