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Memorandum
TO: Mayor Bob Murphy
Lakewood City Council
FROM: Janet Young, Deputy City Attorney
Office of the City Attorney
DATE: January 5, 2009
SUBJECT: Licensing of Escorts and Escort Services
Background Information
In a further effort to control prostitution, the Police Department is proposing that an ordinance be presented to City Council that would require escorts, escort service runners, and escort services to be licensed. Prostitution on West Colfax Avenue has been present in the City of Lakewood for a number of years. To help confront this problem, three years ago the City Council enacted an "area restriction program" as a means of reducing the number of convicted male and female prostitutes working as street prostitutes in the Colfax area. The Lakewood Police Department's Special Investigations Unit is now seeing and investigating a new prostitution trend in the City. The trend is escort services or what is commonly referred to as "outcall business."
Escort services operate in a variety of ways but typically they advertise their services on the Internet on such websites as Craigslist.com and Backpage.com. Most if not all of these websites are accessible to the general public and even though there are disclaimers on the sites, they are generally accessible by minors. Most such web-sites allow users to specifically search for escorts working in Lakewood. Advertisements for such services can also be found in periodical publications and in phonebooks. Typically an escort agency employs a number of females and males and advertises which females or males are available each day via their advertisements on the Internet. There are also escorts who advertise themselves as "independent" and claim that they don't work for an agency. These "independent" escorts also advertise their services on the Internet or in weekly or monthly periodicals in the Denver Metro Area.
Although it is not illegal to be an escort, it is the experience of the Lakewood Police Department and other law enforcement agencies in the Denver Metro area that the escort services and the independent escorts are often fronts for prostitution. The Special Investigations Unit monitors these websites and printed periodicals. These are the same sites where escort agencies and independent escorts advertise their availability and services. Customers post their own reviews regarding escorts/prostitutes that they have hired. When the reviews are read, detectives frequently find that the escorts are offering more than time and companionship and are actually providing prostitution services.
Over the last two years, the Special Investigations Unit has begun to proactively investigate escorts and escort agencies advertising their services on the Internet. During this time, the Special Investigations Unit conducted eight outcall operation investigations/stings. The eight undercover operations netted a total of 41 arrests for various municipal prostitution offenses. Three children were transported to the sting operation by their pimps and the children offered to perform acts of prostitution. Felony charges including Procurement of a Child for Prostitution, Pandering of a Child, Pimping of a Child, and Sexual Exploitation of a Child were filed in Jefferson County Court against the adults who transported the minor children. Other arrests included two of the escorts being charged with several felony counts of Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance. Additionally, five persons were charged with the felony offense of Pimping.
In the course of these investigations, the Lakewood Police Department has also addressed the issue of human trafficking. Although human trafficking is generally viewed as the trafficking of humans from other countries for the purposes of forced or cheap labor, national statistics provided by the United States Department of Justice have revealed that 85 percent of the human trafficking cases in the Untied States are actually domestic trafficking with a majority of the trafficking being in the sex industry such as escort services, massage parlors and/or in-call prostitution operations. Intelligence gathered through such investigations conducted by the Lakewood Police Department and the Denver Police Department in recent years validates this as a true area of concern.
To rectify this growing problem, it is recommended that escort services, escorts, and escort service runners be required to obtain licenses to operate within the City. The Colorado Escort Service Code, Article 25.5 of Title 12, C.R.S., establishes minimum standards for the licensing of escort services, escorts, and escort service runners and specifically allows municipalities to enact more stringent licensing requirements. The cities of Aurora, Colorado Springs, Littleton, Westminster, and the City and County of Denver have enacted such a licensing scheme. These laws require owners of escort services, individual escorts, and escort service runners, or persons driving escorts to "appointments" to obtain a license from the local licensing authority in order to operate an escort business in that jurisdiction.
Proposed provisions of the escort licensing ordinance
The proposed ordinance would:
• Require that any person who holds oneself out to the public as an escort, accepts compensation as an escort, or conducts escort services or activities be licensed as an escort;
• Make it illegal to operate or manage an escort service unless licensed as an escort service;
• Require that any person who represents oneself as an escort service runner or conducts escort service runner services or activities be licensed as an escort service runner.
• Require all applicants for an escort service license, an escort license, or an escort service runner license to be photographed and fingerprinted and to submit a completed application form;
• Subject every applicant to a background investigation and make conviction of any sexual offense or any crime involving prostitution grounds for denial of the application;
• Establish procedures for the denial, suspension, or revocation of licenses;
• Require licensees to display the license within the place of business and require every licensed escort or licensed escort runner to carry or have readily available a City escort photographic identification card that would have to be presented upon demand of a peace officer or a designee of the City Clerk;
• Prohibit any escort, escort service runner, or escort patron during or in connection with the provision of escort services from touching or exposing intimate parts or engaging in, encouraging, requesting, or permitting any acts of sexual intercourse or masturbation;
• Require escorts to provide the City Clerk with a written contract for escort services for each patron as required by Section 12-25.5-112, C.R.S.; and
• Require a yearly renewal of the escort, escort service, or escort service runner licenses.
Conclusion
Passage of an escort licensing ordinance will facilitate the prosecution of prostitutes. Instead of being required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial that the escort was really a prostitute, the prosecution will merely have to prove that the escort, escort service, or escort service runner was unlicensed and offered escort services in exchange for money or other thing of value.
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