Swedish police inspector in city offering tips about dealing with prostitution

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) It’s been over two years since the Harper government overhauled Canada’s prostitution laws and many local police forces are still struggling to adapt.

But police and prosecutors in BC are getting a special lesson from one of Sweden’s best this week.

Detective Inspector Simon Häggström with the Stockholm Police Prostitution Unit has personally arrested over 1000 men for the buying of sexual services.

He says when Sweden changed their laws in 1999 to criminalize the buying of sex, but not the selling, not many people understood.

“It didn’t really make sense to me. How can you criminalize one part of the crime but not the other?”

But now he says the approach actually works and it doesn’t even take many resources to do right.

“All you need is two officers and maybe a social worker or least contact with social services or NGO’s.”

Häggström says the biggest challenge is getting police to enforce the legislation.

He met briefly with Vancouver law enforcement this week.

He’s also relaying the lessons he’s learned in Stockholm to prosecutors and women’s groups.

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