Police illegality and racism
BBC News: Met needs to move away from criminalising sex workers, officers say after Levy failings
Daniel De Simone, Investigations correspondent and Amy Johnston, LondonThe Met needs to move away from criminalising women involved in street sex work in the wake of the Simon Levy case, officers have told the BBC.Levy, a convicted sex offender, was left to kill two women and rape another – all of whom were vulnerable and sometimes engaged in street […]
Bulletin: Sex workers defending their rights
Sex workers fighting for their rights: against rape and other violence, sexism, racism and financial discrimination and for housing, benefits and access to justice The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) is a sex workers’ collective campaigning to end criminalisation and for the rights and safety of sex workers. We provide practical help and assistance to […]
Metro: How a Met Police crackdown left sex workers fearing for their lives
Lauren Crosby MedlicottMaria has been tirelessly working the streets of Enfield as a sex worker on and off for seven years after escaping Romania to try and make a better life for her family back home. ‘Many women like me do this work because we have no other way to survive,’ Maria, 27, tells Metro. ‘Some of us have children. Many of us […]
Statement: The Impact of Operation Pisces and the police operation, Clear, Hold, Build, on Women’s Health and Safety in Enfield
Since October 2024, the Metropolitan Police Service has been running what it calls “Operation Pisces” in Enfield, alongside a Clear, Hold, Build policing approach. While presented as a response to serious crime and antisocial behaviour, women in the long-established red light area tell a very different story.We are basing what we say here directly on […]
Novara Media: Sex Workers’ Friends and Family Could Be Criminalised, Campaigners Warn
‘Disastrous.’by Maya Oppenheim. 17 June 2025Labour MPs are attempting to launch the most “draconian” clampdown on sex work devised in Britain in decades, campaigners have warned.Sex workers told Novara Media that the measures proposed by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi could unjustly criminalise their friends and family and put prostitutes’ safety at risk.Antoniazzi, the Labour MP […]
Cosmopolitan: ‘Like in Gone Girls, the neglect from police over sex worker victims is still scarily prevalent’
The new Netflix docuseries shines a light on how the victims of the Long Island serial killer were treated with contempt by the police — 30 years on, and it seems very little has changedBy Brit Dawson Published: 09 April 2025 At around 5AM on May 1, 2010, Shannan Gilbert — a 23-year-old sex worker from […]
Euro News: ‘St Pancras Sunrise’ – The award-winning short film shining a light on sex work and police brutality
Maeve Murphy is hoping to shine a spotlight on the 1981 murder of a sex worker in her new short film, exploring the powerful protest by the English Collective of Prostitutes and the ongoing battle against police brutality.“15 women, some with children, have locked themselves in Holy Cross Church of Kings Cross. They won’t leave […]
OpenDemocracy: Sex workers need the police to do better, not more
We know policing often harms sex workers. We need to talk about what it would take to change tack Jyoti Belur Ella Cockbain Policing often harms sex workers. That’s not up for debate – copious academic research and sex worker-led advocacy and research demonstrate that. But we’re not actually sure why law enforcement behaves […]