Do the cops in Vancouver really care?

turquine

Member
Dec 23, 2005
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It's always been my understanding that the cops here in Vancouver don't care much at all about SP who work from hotel rooms or who do outcalls or in licensed bodysage parlours, although I heard the only licensed one in town is the Swedish Touch. I also heard that the VPD really are only interested in supressing the "streetwalker nuisiance" and keeping an eye out for predatory animals like Robert Picton. Do the VPD even *have* a Vice squad anymore?

I ask this because an out-of-town SP wanted to know what the cops were like here. I assured her that working in a hotel, a private residence or doing an outcall was pretty much rock-solid safe. I hope I was right...
 

hitrack

I'LL KILL YA ALL!!
Feb 25, 2003
3,883
0
0
Surrey
Just like in the south when you want to politely call some one a dink you would say "I don't know that person very well"

I don't know the VPD very well. :)
 

Shadyona

New member
Dec 13, 2005
12
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0
Vice Squad Active!!!!

Yeah, they still have a vice squad. They just busted me on Tuesday. It was in Vancouver on Victoria, one block off Powell.

Just cruising, and I happen to see a SW who doesn't look like a Junkie.
Pull up, start talking...just messing around. Conversation goes like this:
(Hopefully one of you Cops is reading this cause this was real bullshit..)

me "what's up"
her "what are you looking for"
me "you got a place"
her "yeah, just down the block"
me "get it"
her "you got money"
me "yeah get it"
her "what do you want"
..then I look at her, she’s wearing a long jacket and showing a hint of cleavage(small boobed)"
me "are you a cop?"
her "no, I’m just doing this for money for school"
me "get in"
her "do you have money"
me "yes"
her "don't waste my time"
me "are you a cop?"
her "NO!"
me "I'm outta here"
her "don't waste my time, c'mon $20, what do you want"
me" ummm, a BJ" as soon as I say that BAM ..outta nowhere 2 cop cars block me in, one head on and one from behind.
cop "get out of the car...yada yada yada. your under arrest for
communicating to a hooker for the purpose of ***(however they worded it)."

cuff me, check me out, I tell the Cop off the bat I had a beef before (not related in anyway). Then I ask if I'm going to the cop shop or not. Then some guy takes a pic of me, I'm like WTF, then the cops are like, it's just for our squad yada yada yada. Then the cop says OK, I'm taking your honesty into consideration so, you can be charged or go talk to this guy. Hands me a pamphlet for John school and says, you better get a hold of this guy or I'm gonna come find you and charge you.
I'm like Ok. Then they release me.

I get home, look at this shit, says I gotta go talk to some guy at the John Howard Society for the Prostitution Offender Program where i MUST PAY A $500 registration fee at time of talking to counselor and attend an 8 hour program!?!?!?!

The more I think about, I think I'm gonna get a lawyer. This is BS. I'd rather give a lawyer a few grand than go through this.

The way I look at it, I asked the undercover twice for sure (maybe even a third time) if she was a cop, and twice I said "this is sketchy, I’m outta here" and was gonna leave but she kept the conversation going
so IMO to a certain degree it was entrapment.

Anyone else got stories!!!

BTW, I don't even pic up SW. I just fuck around once in a while, but not anymore.
 

turquine

Member
Dec 23, 2005
112
0
16
Damn, sorry to hear you got busted!! It does sound like you were led on.

But it sounds like what I heard is true: the VPD are only really interested in busting "bawdy houses" and johns who go for street walkers. Maybe it's because they don't have the resources (or for that matter any desire) to come down on SPs who work discreetly?

Anyone else have any info on this? Preferably something authoritative.
 

CJ Tylers

Retired Sr. Member
Jan 3, 2003
1,643
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North Vancouver
um, I think the only cops that actually have any empathy (and thus care) for the women on the streets are the ones who constantly walk the beat.

The VICE squad? Give me a break, they don't give a damn. It's just a job, they bust some creeps to put on a good show... maybe snag a couple of druggies or dealers and call it a day.

I'd like to seem them tackle the gangs, the drug manufacturers and other sources of crime/vice rather than picking on the victims. It would seem to me that they are little more than bullies, whos methods I cannot abide. Deceit & treachery are not something I'd like out cities finest to live by.

The boys and girls that actually walk the beat, those that put time & sweat into making lives better for others... they get props from me. They have a tough job that I sure wouldn't want to do.

Those that just do highly political "take downs" for brownie points 'cause it's high visibility without actually stopping the dangerous activities... get no thanks from me.

The d/t street cops were trying to get attention on the core and the possibility of a serial killer for a while... the high ups/liasons didn't give a rats ass until society put alot of pressure on them.
 

ihatemyskirt

Member
Aug 17, 2004
619
1
18
42
liquid city
Shad you are safe, they are just trying to scare you. I am sure if you pursue that with legal council, you will not have the burden of that in your record. This really did happen in Van? Was the bitch a cop or informant? That is really unfortunate and I am obviously not as aware of our laws as I thought. Must research this further. Just doesn't sound right.


As for advice about Vpd and their involvement with the industry, you are basically free to do as you please compared to other cities with similar laws. Just don't hurt people and rip them off and they won't complain about you and you won't be bothered by cops. Otherwise I believe the police are very supportive of the working girls even those outdoors, likely due to the fact that they are a well known attraction of Van city. As long as the girls do not behave like animals and give this fine city a bad rep, we are basically left alone. Really don't even have to follow the licencing laws, noone really cares. It has been that way since I moved here anyhow. If you work out of a hotel just be discreet and noone will care.
 

Creole Lady Marmalade

No more reviews, please.
Dec 20, 2004
1,468
2
0
Think about it for a sec, you asked if she was a cop. It's an undercover operation where an undercover cop or informant can say anything to redirect the "are you a cop" question, otherwise it wouldn't be undercover.
 

ghostie

ghostly user
Jul 8, 2005
721
0
0
Do they have a "vice squad"? Yes they do. Administratively it's combined with the drug squad. In practical terms they are seperate. The drug side gets most of the resources:

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/police/investigation/ViceDrugs/index.htm

Priorities on the vice side are child prostitution, child pornography, child expoitation and trying to keep young people out of the drug and prostitution lifestyle. Adult prostitution is not a priority, but they still do get involved from a time to time.

They do still do "stings" (female officer), like the above poster go hit with, and, believe it or not, they still do "reverse stings" (male officer/buy bust), although the VDP doesn't do a hell of a lot of either. Generally the regular patrol units just follow people around and use some low-level harrasment to try and keep the level of john traffic down. If they get a lot of complaints in an area outside of the hardcore hooker strolls (Cordova, Clark, Franklin, etc.) they will do something. Like, if a lot of SWs and SW traffic starts popping up in a regular "Mom and Pop" immigrant neigbourhood in East Van, that won't go on for very long before the police start using increased patrols, stings and reverse stings to send the message that it is not allowed there and you had better get back to your cages on Cordova, Clark, Franklin where you belong!

On entrapment. Entrapment law us fairly weak in Canada. It's a very hard defence to make out. See the following Supreme Court of Canada case if you are interested:

http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/pub/1988/vol2/html/1988scr2_0903.html

"Entrapment occurs when (a) the authorities provide a person with an opportunity to commit an offence without acting on a reasonable suspicion that this person is already engaged in criminal activity or pursuant to a bona fide inquiry, and, (b) although having such a reasonable suspicion or acting in the course of a bona fide inquiry, they go beyond providing an opportunity and induce the commission of an offence. It is essential that the factors relied on by a court relate to the underlying reasons for the recognition of the doctrine in the first place."

Talk to a lawyer though... and don't try and argue this stuff with the police. You'll just get their backs up and it'll make it worse for you. As always, say nothing to the police. Your lawyer will do the talking for you in front of a judge if it comes to that.

On that thing about, "Go to John school or I'll charge you?" Personally I feel that this is bullshit. I would just drive away and throw that pamphlet in the garbage. If I ever heard about it from them again, by way of summons or anything else, I'd just get counsel and fight it (and win easiy, as it is a bullshit case that won't make it through the early stages of the criminal justice system). As a general rule, if the police feel they have the evidence to charge you, then they charge you. they aren't your friends and they don't give a flying fuck what effect it has on your life. I always feel that if they don't issue a Promise to Appear at the time of the incident (or arrest, if it is such an offence) then they are never going to forward a charge to Crown counsel. If it is a murder investigation or money laundering or something, sure, they'll cme and talk to you, do some more work, talk to other people, and charges might come later. But with communicating in public for the purposes of prostitution, they aren't going to waste any more time on it. They have sent their message. They know it's a bullshit offence. That's the end of it.

If you really want to get aggressive you can have your counsel write them and ask them to destroy the photograph they took of you or justify on what legal basis they are retaining that document, etc., etc. You can also FOI all the information about you held by the VPD, although there are exceptions under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the provincial public-sector privacy law) relating to police investigations. The police tend to abuse the exceptions in the act quite badly and it is hard to get them to reconsider without going to a judge. Even the Privacy Commissioner and the Police Complaints Commissioner only have some much power over them (i.e., not much).

Bottom line: never give in to anything the police try to do to you. FIGHT EVERYTHING! It's worth it, believe me. In most of these thing they are basically banking on 99% of the people just going along with what they tell them (as if the police are the experts on the law) because they are too scared or too embarassed to do anything about it. Be that 1%.
 

kyle1

New member
Dec 18, 2004
31
0
0
they bust some creeps to put on a good show

CJ Tylers said:
um, I think the only cops that actually have any empathy (and thus care) for the women on the streets are the ones who constantly walk the beat.

The VICE squad? Give me a break, they don't give a damn. It's just a job, ... maybe snag a couple of druggies or dealers and call it a day.

I'd like to seem them tackle the gangs, the drug manufacturers and other sources of crime/vice rather than picking on the victims. It would seem to me that they are little more than bullies, whos methods I cannot abide. Deceit & treachery are not something I'd like out cities finest to live by.

The boys and girls that actually walk the beat, those that put time & sweat into making lives better for others... they get props from me. They have a tough job that I sure wouldn't want to do.

Those that just do highly political "take downs" for brownie points 'cause it's high visibility without actually stopping the dangerous activities... get no thanks from me.

The d/t street cops were trying to get attention on the core and the possibility of a serial killer for a while... the high ups/liasons didn't give a rats ass until society put alot of pressure on them.
are we creeps? I dont think so!
 

Madeleine

Madeleine Xanthine
Mar 5, 2005
80
4
8
Kitsilano
Www.xanthine.ca
Inside information

Hiya.
In answer to the original post in the thread:

I've been working independently on and off for a year now, and I've worked running the phones at many an agency for years before that. Not only have I never been confronted by the police, I've never even talked to anyone who was confronted by them unless they were underage streetwalkers. (In which case - bust 'em, I say, and get them somewhere safe.)

I also have a close family member who is up there in the V.P.D. He is not interested in making arrests of johns unless they have been seen in the area before picking up underage girls, or have a history of violence or aggression. The public who pay property taxes in the areas of Strathcona, Yaletown, and Kingsway, however, do want to see arrests. So the VPD make a few to keep up appearances.

I had the misfortune to give someone a heart attack while he was visiting me for a session. (He's okay now - but he might not go for the six foot redhead again any time soon) I called 911, and it would have been painfully clear by the situation what was afoot. The paramedics didn't care, and no one followed up on it with him or me

According to a friend who works in city hall, there are at least seventeen licensed massage parlours in Vancouver. Swedish Touch and Cleo's are two of them.

I once had a client get out of hand. I decked him, locked him in the bathroom, and called the police. They filed charges against him of: sexual assault and assault with a weapon. No sex trafficking charges for either of us, and again, the situation was clear - I told them exactly what was going on.

So to stay away from the cops: don't pick up street walkers, license your parlour, and don't pick on redheads.;)
 

insync2you

New member
Nov 22, 2005
121
0
0
Excellant advice from Madeleine

I know the head of VPD vice stick to the girls on the web pay the premium and stay out of trouble. What goes on between two consenting adults in the PRIVACY of a hotel room, upscale yaletown condo, or parlour (never done the latter myself), is of little concern to vice. Drugs, FORCED prostitution, ususally drug induced and underage girls and boys for those into that is a concern. Ad to that health concerns, all associated with street prostitution so quit trying to save a buck book a date don't pick-up a problem! my 2 cents worth
 
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