A police department in Minnesota, said that it will review its policies over prostitution busts after judges threw out cases against prostitutes. The Minneapolis police department has suspended all of its sting operations against prostitution after courts dismissed three cases against prostitutes within one month. WWWN reports:
The courts dismissed the cases against the women because the undercover officers had sex with the suspects.
Police said they are conducting a comprehensive review of its undercover investigation policies, but they claim that the officers’ actions should not have made it impossible to get a conviction.Police Chief Janee Harteau said that they will no longer use undercover operations to investigate suspected prostitution in massage businesses. In all of the case, police officers were investigating alleged activities of prostitution in massage parlors. In one incident, the officer was heard asking the masseuse if she wants him to roll on his back. The woman then allegedly touched his private parts. The officer was heard moaning before using a codeword for other officers to come inside to do the bust.
In the other 2 cases, the officers were heard negotiating a price with the masseuse to “take care of them before the woman touched their private parts,” police said. “My hope is that the Police Department finally stops participating in the outrages behavior of having sexual relations with the targets of their investigations,” lawyer Jeffrey Dean, who represented the women in both cases, said.
