Prostitution Is Down In Seatac -- Decrease Tied To Increased Vigilance, New Loitering Law, Green River Killer

SEATAC - They're still around, swaying their hips, looking over their shoulders to catch a man's eye - and then the cash in his wallet.

But the prostitutes who once plied their wares dozens strong in this airport city and neighboring communities are in far reduced numbers than in years past, say law-enforcement officials.

Sightings of street walkers are reported to be way down. So, too, are the trademark leftovers they once discarded indiscriminately in gutters and parks - the condoms that protected them and their clients, the used needles that fed their drug habits.

"In my opinion, it is down but not out," said SeaTac's chief law-enforcement officer, Lt. Craig Wilkie of the King County Police Department, which provides police protection to this city of 24,000.

Before the Green River killer became a household word, prostitutes were a common sight along Pacific Highway South, from South 140th Street in Tukwila south to SeaTac and Federal Way.

"There were nights on Pacific Highway South when you could find 50 girls working the strip, easily," said Pat Covey, a King County vice detective.

Today, officials say there are a half-dozen or fewer along the same route.

The decline in prostitution in an area once notorious as a hotbed of illicit sexual activity is attributed to several factors.

Officials believe many prostitutes have gone elsewhere because of the danger posed by the Green River killer, linked to the

slayings of at least 49 women from 1982 to 1984, many of them prostitutes. The murderer has not been caught.

Other prostitutes have left for less repressive business climates since last summer's police sweeps of known prostitute haunts in SeaTac and neighboring Tukwila.

The sweeps were designed to rid the area of the sex trade before and during the Goodwill Games.

Mayor Frank Hansen said SeaTac's passage of an anti-loitering law shortly after the city incorporated on Feb. 28, 1990, also has pulled the rug out from the street walkers. It empowers police to arrest prostitutes who previously were convicted in SeaTac and who re-enter the city while on probation, even if they break no laws.

"They're bound to come and go," said Hansen. "But you can bet that if they show up here, there's going to be a cop in their face."

The law, called SOAP, or "stay out of areas of prostitution," punishes violators with up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine.

Merchants with shops along the corridor agree illegal sexual activity has dwindled.

"I see prostitutes here still, but slightly fewer than there used to be," said Frank Bonawitz, a SeaTac resident. Bonawitz works as a clerk at a convenience store just off Pacific Highway South, since renamed International Boulevard by the city.

Authorities harbor no false hopes that prostitution will ever be eliminated.

That's true partly because of SeaTac's distinction as home of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Like other transportation hubs, it attracts a certain class of travelers looking for sexual activity before returning home.

Moreover, the area will continually attract first-time prostitutes, many of whom have never heard of or have no fear of the police sweeps and the Green River killer. As a result, one prostitution ring may be broken, only to be replaced by another.

To combat the problem, law-enforcement officials say they must maintain a continued presence there, although the King County Police vice unit has a staff of only six and their duties are spread between enforcing gambling and prostitution laws.

SeaTac City Attorney Robert McAdams sees as another solution tougher laws to regulate the licensing of adult entertainment, such as topless dance clubs. Critics contend such businesses are a haven for prostitution.

Unlike ordinances that regulate massage parlors, city regulations contain no provision to prevent someone from opening an adult-oriented business, even if they have criminal convictions, McAdams said.

"We have found that the rules and regulations are much more lax than they are with the massage business. I think we ought to bring them into line," he said.

Quelling the demand for sex may be much more difficult to deal with.

Despite the reduction in prostitutes, police say there has been no similar decline in "Johns" seeking them out.

They report they can routinely arrest from 10 to 15 men a night whenever decoys - female officers dressed as prostitutes - are planted in the area.

"The customers are always out there," said Sgt. Frank Kinney, supervisor of the vice-control unit for King County police.