The Dallas Police Department has temporarily paused enforcement of the city's prostitution ordinance following a recent Dallas Municipal Court ruling.
It comes nearly two years after the city amended its ordinance to allow law enforcement to arrest or cite someone suspected of attempting to engage in prostitution.
The May 21 ruling called the ordinance vague, overbroad, and in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, according to the ruling by Judge Jay Robinson.
The case was filed by two women who were charged with "manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution," which is allowed under the current ordinance.
Corbin Rubinson, DPD public information officer, said in an email that the department has temporarily suspended enforcing the ordinance due to the ruling.
"The Department remains committed to enforcing all laws, and this ruling does not restrict officers from other methods of investigating and enforcing prostitution and trafficking crimes in the City of Dallas," Rubinson said.
The May ruling is not the first time Dallas has been told its prostitution ordinance is overly broad. Dallas City Council amended the city's prostitution ordinance in October 2023 after the municipal court ruled an initial version was also overbroad and unconstitutional.
The ordinance that's been in place since then — Manifesting the Purpose of Engaging in Prostitution — outlines ways law enforcement can determine if a person intentionally committed an offense. That includes known sex workers and procurers who frequent locations, people who repeatedly beckon passersby or motorists, and people who repeatedly interfere with the free passage of others.
Council Member Adam Bazaldua was the lone council member to vote against the amended ordinance, calling it a tool that would give probable cause to harass people.
Bazaldua told KERA News on Thursday that his concerns were validated from Robinson's ruling.
"We need evidence to pursue an investigation of an alleged law that has been broken," he said. "We don't need to fabricate policy that widens the definition of what violating a law is, and that's ultimately what this was."
The city will appeal the court's ruling, Bazaldua said. Enforcement of the ordinance will remain paused unless the city wins its appeal.
"Here we are now spending tax dollars defending unconstitutional laws and I think that it is outrageous, quite frankly," Bazaldua said.
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