I'll explain. Let's say under the old regime she says, “Get away from me, police officer. You're harassing me. I'm doing this on my own volition. Nobody is exploiting me. That bruise you see? I fell.” But prior to my coming to talk to her, I may already know that she's a sex worker, that this is how she's operating, and that the individuals around her are exploiting her. She can tell me to get lost, but under the old regime, when that pimp shows up and I form the grounds that he is living on the avails of her prostitution, I can separate her. He can't come up to me and say, “Get lost, police officer. I'm her bodyguard. We're doing everything legal. She's working on her own volition. She doesn't have to talk to you. Get lost.”
Under the new regime, there will some issues with that—i.e., that they'll mask themselves as security bodyguards and that she will go. Under the old regime, I could say, “You know what? I'm not leaving. You're coming with me. He's under arrest for living on the avails of prostitution.” I could separate them. I could tell her, “Listen, I don't want to criminalize you in any way, but I need time to talk to you.”
The discretion that we used was time, because you cannot try to help a girl in 10 minutes. You need a good solid one or two hours to sit down, explain the situation, and offer resources. If she accepts it, great. We've been very successful in that extraction and accepting.