Police urge public to pass on kerb crawlers' reg numbers

Published on Wednesday 3 December 2008 09:08

MEMBERS of the public are being asked to help catch kerb crawlers in Leith by taking down the registration numbers of suspicious vehicles.

Police issued a plea for help after the number of complaints about sex workers in Leith began to rise again.

They have asked local residents to be on the lookout for drivers trawling for prostitutes and contact police with their details.

Pc Lee Jack, based at Leith Police Station, said: "Prostitution calls have seen a sharp increase this month. There seems to be no reason for this. However, it is something we are monitoring very closely.

"I ask that people continue to call us regarding this problem, and if possible provide vehicle registration numbers of cars frequenting the area and picking up the street workers."

Police in Leith dealt with more calls about prostitution during October than they had in previous months – 11 complaints in total.

Residents believe that in the last six weeks more young prostitutes have been openly working on Leith Links, many of them Eastern European, instead of in the long-established Salamander Street area.

Kerb crawlers have also been seen in surrounding streets – Claremont Park and Pirniefield Place – along with what are thought to be pimps in sports cars, seen speaking with the women before driving off.

Linda Tarbuck, chairman of Leith Links Residents Association, said: "There are certainly concerns. We see young girls, kerb crawlers and pimps. The prostitutes often wait at bus stops, simply stepping back if a bus comes. It's put people off letting their children get off there."

Prostitution support workers believe more people are seeing street workers in residential areas around Leith Links, because of the law that last year made kerb crawling an offence.

Women are straying away from the established prostitution area, so their clients are not as easily recognised by the police.

Ruth Morgan Thomas, project manager of Scot-Pep, a Newhaven-based support group, said: "We keep asking the women not to work in residential areas – we realise it has an impact on a community. At the same time, though, the situations that lead the women to be there are often out of their control. About 95 per cent of them are drug addicts, and a significant number have alcohol issues, along with homeless and mental health problems."