That’s not occurring, nor has that ever occurred.”īut Layton police spokesman Lt. Clark said that if an officer’s genitals are touched during a sting, the contact lasts only a few seconds.
#JAPANESE FATHER AND SON VISIT GAY MASSAGE PARLOR MANUAL#
The policy manual for Unified Police instructs officers to have “limited” physical contact with suspected sex workers, and they are not supposed to initiate sexual contact. With workers who don’t speak English well, “it is extremely difficult to get a prosecution without having valid evidence to articulate that they were doing a sex act,” Unified Police Detective Geoff Clark said.
Yet Unified police officials say that sometimes touching is required when an undercover officer encounters a language barrier and can’t verbally negotiate a deal. When officers investigate sex solicitation, Utah law requires only an agreement to exchange money for sex acts to make an arrest - sexual contact isn’t necessary. But she eventually pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, admitting in court papers that she hired workers from out-of-state and different countries with the expectation that they engage in sexual activities with customers.Īfter delays in the case, she was sentenced to probation and 30 days in jail last month. The owner, Brenda Zang, challenged the tactics used by Bountiful police, saying their surveillance and capture of her credit card records was improper. He, too, came back several times after massages ended in sex acts. The other said he decided to visit after the business caught his eye while he was at his favorite juice shop nearby. One said he went to the business at first because he had back problems but returned several times and paid for sexual contact. Two of those men detailed their visits on the witness stand. The information was later used to find additional customers who had paid for massages. The officer also took in a specialized credit card that would capture the shop’s credit card records when swiped. Sex acts could be discussed, Officer Aric Barker testified, but “they weren’t to receive anything other than a massage.” They sent in an undercover officer to solicit a sex act - but he was told no sexual touching could happen, according to preliminary hearing testimony. They talked to men who admitted they had paid for sex acts. The nonprofit also urges police to focus on investigating a criminal network as a whole, instead of prosecuting individual workers on low-level prostitution charges.īountiful police took that general approach in 2016, when they targeted a woman who owned a massage business there - and also owned the Midvale shop where the Unified officer would be touched two years later.īountiful officers set up security cameras at a nearby company to document who was coming in and out of her business. The nonprofit says the best way for officials to deal with these companies is by gathering evidence to revoke their business licenses. It estimates that they rake in a combined $2.5 billion a year. Polaris Project, a national nonprofit that focuses on human trafficking, estimates there are more than 9,000 massage businesses nationwide whose workers also engage in sex acts. “You, in fact, committed the crime and then arrested the other person for that crime.” A different focus “There is no bone in my body that says that is the right thing to do,” said Chris Burbank, a former Salt Lake City police chief who now works with the Center of Policing Equity. They say it also ignores that many of these employees are doing sex work because they have been trafficked. Some experts say tactics like this are outdated, inappropriate and, often, not necessary to prove a criminal case in Utah. It’s necessary, they say, to show that the employees are engaged in sex acts because it can be difficult to communicate with workers who do not speak fluent English. Unified police officials say this was not unusual about half of their undercover operations targeting so-called massage parlors involve the masseuse touching an officer’s genitals before an arrest is made.