A specialist police vice squad could be returning to a prostitution hotspot in Streatham.
Lambeth police’s new borough commander Chief Superintendent Nick Ephgrave announced last week he was looking to bring back a specialist team to handle vice problems in the borough.
The borough’s previous vice squad, which played a major role in reducing a serious prostitution and kerb-crawling problem in Garrad’s Road, was disbanded last May by former Lambeth top cop Sharon Rowe, who wanted to concentrate resources on targeting violent crime.
Safer neighbourhood teams (SNTs) were then left to try and cope with the problem.
Residents living in Garrad’s Road and the surrounding area, next to renowned kerbcrawling area Bedford Hill and Tooting Bec Common, reported an increase in sex workers soliciting as a result.
Chief Supt Ephgrave told a Lambeth Council meeting: “I would like to look at reforming the vice squad.
"I can’t make that promise because I need to look at the resources available but its unrealistic to expect SNTs to deal with the issue alone.”
Concerns have also been raised about how effectively Lambeth police and the council have worked with their counterparts in Wandsworth to address the issue together.
Police are responsible for carrying out enforcemnet action, with the councils collecting any evidence provided by residents.
Anti-vice campaigners have called for an exclusion zone to be created spanning the entire area on the borders of Wandsworth and Lambeth, and any court orders obtained to ban prostitutes and kerb-crawlers to be for the whole area.
It is feared sex workers are now simply displaced across the borough boundaries.
A Lambeth Council spokesman said prostitution would not be tolerated in the borough which was why three of the most prolific sex workers who operated in Garrad’s Road were served injunctions which banned them from the area in November 2008.
He added: “Since then, reported incidents of prostitution have fallen dramatically and the women have not returned to the area or any other part of the borough.”
Lambeth Police , who take the lead on enforcemnet action against prostitutes have so far failed to comment on the potential for introducing the exclusion zone.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here