Winnipeg residents want johns long gone

WINNIPEG — Some residents of Winnipeg are tired of seeing prostitution on their streets — and they're doing something about it.

The West Central Community Improvement Association, WCCIA, is now posting licence plate numbers of vehicles the group has seen cruising for prostitutes on their Web site.

Rev. Harry Lehotsky of the WCCIA says men aren't just soliciting sex from hookers; they also try to pick up mothers and children who are just walking by.

Winnipeg police Sgt. Brian Cyncora says there doesn't appear to be anything illegal about the site. Since 1991, the public has not been able to search an owner's name at the Motor Vehicle Branch and police can't give out this information.

But lawyer Jay Prober says the site smells of vigilante justice.

Lehotsky says residents just want to put an end to prostitution and hope the site will help drive johns and hookers away from the area.

The Web site was one of many ideas proposed at a community meeting last month.

Similar Web pages have been set up by communities in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.