Officers went door-to-door, hoping to change a neighborhood on Lisbon Avenue. Six blocks of Lisbon Avenue in Milwaukee got some extra attention Monday.
Police say this is one of the areas that has been historically plagued by prostitution. Police went door-to-door, hoping to identify prostitutes and change behaviors. Over the past two years, police have changed their tactics from simply arresting prostitutes, to getting them into a self-help program.
That program is called "Operation Red Light. We've seen a lot of young women that frankly are being taken advantage of by other people," Whaley-Smith said. The group has been strategizing with Milwaukee Police District 3 over the last year, to address area prostitution. On days like Monday, police make sure their proactive efforts are very apparent.
Let the people who are coming down here to engage in these illegal acts know that the police are monitoring you. We are watching you, and we're not going to accept that this is the place where this is allowed to happen," Milwaukee Police Officer Stephen Witkowski said. This is the third time police have done a daylight sweep on Lisbon over the past year. They say they're targeting other areas in District 3 as well, and performing random nighttime sweeps. River Flood Warning.
