Street Prostitution stopped in Ipswich

11.06.29am GMT Wed 11th Jun 2008

For the first time there are no working street prostitutes in Ipswich.

In the last two months not a single worker has been spotted or a complaint or report made by members of the public.

Whilst there were over 100 arrests for kerb crawling in recent times, whilst the Police and Ipswich Borough Council worked towards eradicating the problem, there have been no kerb crawlers found in the last two months.

Superintendent Alan Caton as reported in the Evening Star said: "We've had no reports of kerb crawling or prostitution for some weeks now. It's the first time no women have been working for a significant period of time.

"Prostitution in Ipswich has been a problem for many decades. I have been working in Ipswich for 25 years and this is the most successful strategy I can ever remember.

"It's not to say it couldn't revert back again. We are continuously optimistic about what the strategy has achieved. However, we are aware that prostitution is fuelled by drug addiction, particularly street prostitution, and drug addiction is incredibly difficult to overcome.

"I think a lot of credit needs to go to the women who have put themselves in a position of getting out of street prostitution and going through all the programmes to help them get out of those drug habits.

"We must realise people do lapse. It's a very chaotic lifestyle and the need to take drugs makes people behave in ways they wouldn't otherwise do.

"I'm always conscious that tomorrow four or five individuals may lapse from their drug treatment and could be back on the streets. We really have to be on the ball with this."

"We've not had any arrests for some weeks despite intensive policing activity. The message is beginning to get out there to the men who come to Ipswich and kerb crawl," said Supt Caton.

"The multi agency team is working really hard to provide support to the women who are the most vulnerable to help them develop a route out of street prostitution.

"There's a lot of work going on with partner agencies around prevention, including looking at the school curriculum and trying to get the message out within schools.

"It's about trying to identify individuals who are particularly at risk of entering into a life of prostitution.

"The local council has worked incredibly hard in improving the environment where this sort of activity went on."

"There may well be issues around displacement and we acknowledged that as a risk in our strategy. However our evidence is that these women are not engaging in other towns. Our evidence is that these women are not moving to off street premises to engage in street prostitution.

"While I'm incredibly pleased with the success I'm not complacent. I'm certainly not saying we have eradicated street prostitution yet."

Ipswich Liberal Democrats want to take this opportunity to thank the Police and local council officers for their hard-work in getting a fantastic result. We now need to make sure that the streets of Ipswich remain free of street prostitution in the future.