SEATTLE - As a referendum on new city regulations restricting strip clubs nears, both sides of the argument are ramping up the debate over whether the clubs attract crime to neighborhoods.
Last year, the city passed an ordinance effectively banning lap dancing by requiring patrons to stay a minimum four feet away from dancers, the Seattle Times reported. But the ordinance didn't sit well with the city’s strip club operators, some of whom joined forces to put the issue on the Nov. 7 ballot where voters will decide whether the measure will stay or go.
But city leaders have been actively campaigning against the measure, saying strip clubs need strict regulation because they contribute to increased criminal activity in their neighborhoods.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has gone on to link strip clubs with organized crime. But so far, the city has not been able to prove such accusations, nor show that clubs cause more crime.
Officials have instead opted to tout research done in other cities that demonstrate crime is higher in areas where strip clubs are located. Even the city’s police statistics on crime show lots of busts involving violations of erotic dancing rules at strip clubs, but no arrests involving serious crimes like prostitution.
Since 2001, prosecutors have filed more than 400 misdemeanor charges against dancers, but only about 40 cases have led to guilty pleas, according to the City Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors say that dancers facing multiple charges usually plead to just one violation, while charges against women with no criminal history are mostly dropped or dismissed if they agree to pay a small fine.
The city says it has suspended the license of 114 dancers since 2002, with 23 of those suspensions reversed on appeal.
Police say that they usually find illegal sexual activity almost every time they check clubs. Dancers, though they are not allowed to fondle customers or permit them to fondle them, do so anyway.
But Deputy Police Chief Clark Kimerer said that getting a court conviction against dancers and clubs isn’t easy. Police must often go under cover and pay for lap dances to observe illegal activities. Even so, arrests are few, Kimerer said, because the vice unit has been focusing more on street prostitution.
But last month, 13 dancers and two managers were arrested at Sugar’s during an undercover sting operation. Two strippers were charged with prostitution after they allegedly agreed to have sex for $100 and $150. A 16-year-old stripper was also arrested.
But strip club owners say their recent study shows that Seattle strip clubs do not contribute to crime rates in their surrounding neighborhoods. Moreover, consultants hired by strip clubs say that studies that link strip clubs to high crime rates don’t account for the fact that strip clubs are forced to relocate to seedy neighborhoods where crime is rampant.
Seattle strip clubs, however, are still dealing with the attention cast on Rick’s and its original owners who were involved in a 2003 campaign contribution scandal.
Legal
- By
