In an ongoing effort to decriminalize sex work within the metro area, New York City officials have moved to dismiss nearly 1,500 pending criminal cases related to prostitution — arrests that tend to be highly biased and largely target transgender individuals and women of color.
On March 8, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced that her motion to dismiss more than 800 prostitution-related cases had been approved by the courts. And on March 17, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz issued a similar motion, requesting the dismissal of 700 similar charges, all involving offenses related to prostitution.
Citing the city’s recent repeal of what many called the “walking while trans” law — which allowed police to question and arrest anyone they suspected of potentially being a sex worker — as the reason for her motion, Katz said in a statement that “historical data shows that enforcement of this statute had primarily been used to arrest people based on their gender or appearance. Dismissing cases related to this unfair and now-repealed statute frees members of our community from the collateral consequences of their arrests.”
