By Guy Page
The Montpelier (city) Police Review Commission and the city council are tentatively scheduled to discuss legalizing prostitution within the city limits.
The posting for the June 22 city council meeting is revisits a PRC discussion begun last October. At that city council meeting, the PRC recommended:
- Montpelier City Council should support H. 268 of 2021, which repeals consensual prostitution laws while retaining felony human trafficking laws.
- Montpelier should repeal its prostitution ordinances, which criminalize housing for sex workers, the act of sex work, and a safe workplace for sex workers.
- MPD should continue to deprioritize the investigation of consensual sex work and instead prioritize human trafficking, coercion, and when force is at issue.
Since then, Burlington has voted to remove prostitution prohibitions from its charter. The House this week passed the proposed charter change. It is now up for Senate review.