Opinion: Why decriminalizing loitering for prostitution was wrong

Stephan is the San Diego County district attorney.

Girls as young as 13 are being openly sold for sex on San Diego County streets. In fact, women of all ages are being blatantly trafficked for sex, meaning they are forced to walk the streets while their traffickers keep a watchful eye on their every move. One big reason is because California recently repealed the crime of loitering for prostitution with Senate Bill 357. By decriminalizing loitering for prostitution, the illicit sex trade moved from online back to the streets where transactions are openly occurring in front of law enforcement. And even though SB 357 barely passed off the Assembly floor by one vote, its tragic result can be seen on our streets every day.

Rather than increasing tools available to deter and stop exploitation, California’s Legislature did the opposite by enacting a law that created more exploitation of women and girls. Now that patrol officers can no longer make arrests based on loitering for the purposes of prostitution, complaints from communities and businesses have grown louder and more frequent as investigation and law enforcement tools have been stolen away.

Repealing the prostitution loitering statute hampered law enforcement because police relied upon the law to initiate human trafficking investigations when they would witness obvious prostitution activity occurring on the streets. Uniformed officers could patrol the streets and deter loiterers intent on selling or buying sex. Not anymore. Now, already-strained law enforcement must rely on resource-intensive undercover operations to identify victims of human trafficking and build a provable criminal case.

After the decriminalization bill went into effect in 2023, I accompanied the San Diego Police Department to Dalbergia Street to see what was happening for myself. I did the same with National City Police to view the impact on Main Street. I witnessed firsthand the unintended consequences of SB 357. What I saw was an open sex market with young women barely dressed and a line of sex buyers waiting in cars as casually as if they were at a drive through ordering a hamburger. The traffickers, sex sellers and buyers were totally undeterred and carried out their business with impunity.

I saw a young woman dressed in a black mesh garment with the telltale look of trauma in her eyes that I’m all too familiar with from years of looking into the eyes of crime victims. I asked the detectives I was with to check on her welfare. The young woman told them about a horrific incident where a sex buyer strangled her to unconsciousness. This harsh reality, which is happening daily in our community, is the strongest refutation of the claim that the decriminalization of this crime somehow benefits any human being.

In response to the unsafe and dehumanizing conditions that this bill created, law enforcement came together and assembled Operation Better Pathways, led by San Diego County’s Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. The operation brought together prosecutors and federal, state, and local law enforcement to tackle this issue. One haunting data point from this operation sums up the devastating impact of human trafficking: Eight children were recovered with the youngest being 13.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 357 into law, he did so with clear trepidation. He made the promise to monitor for unintended consequences and he pledged to act if he saw them.

To truly honor January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, it is time to repeal SB 357 and to also increase penalties for sex buyers who are lining the pockets of traffickers. Only by bolstering human trafficking laws can we protect the most vulnerable and stop allowing lives to be destroyed. The experiment of SB 357 has failed.

If you are a victim or witness to human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888 or text HELP to BeFree (233-733). Call 911 for an emergency. Please visit the Human Trafficking page at SanDiegoDA.com to learn more about the red flags and how you can protect your family.