Police ask county for help to better battle prostitution

She sits at a slot machine beside a walkway, her legs crossed and her shiny, black stilettos poking out for passers-by to see.

Dressed in jeans and a draping cotton top, Marcella could pass for a tourist absorbed in the game of chance.

Marcella, 27, a prostitute for nine years, is plying her trade at the Palms this night.

Security guards at casinos seldom bother her, but vice cops are hassling her more these days.

“It’s getting tough,” she says. “It’s a tough, tough game.”

As part of a crackdown, the Metropolitan Police Department seeks to expand Clark County’s anti-prostitution codes. Police want to keep prostitutes out of hotel hallways and stop them from using lewd tactics to peg undercover officers.

The proposal has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which contends that the proposed rules would trample on people’s rights for the sake of deterring a relatively minor crime.

Police are working with the district attorney’s office to fine-tune the code revisions then present a final version in the coming weeks to county commissioners.

Commissioner Susan Brager brought the proposal to the commission Tuesday, but she and other commissioners made no other comments.

Representatives from Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Mirage said they weren’t familiar with the proposal and couldn’t comment.

Police are working to revise Clark County's anti-prostitution codes in tandem with a rule change that would hold lap dancers liable for lewd conduct in strip clubs.

The basic goal is to tighten rules so they closely mirror those in Las Vegas, making them fairly consistent across city and county lines to avoid confusion, said Vice Sgt. Donald Hoier.

A person now could be acting within the law on one side the street and breaking the law on the other, he said.

The Police Department serves the city of Las Vegas as well as unincorporated areas of the county.

Hoier said he doesn’t care for the term “crackdown” because it erroneously implies that police are throwing more resources at the problem.

The current county code bars a person from wandering around in a public place and repeatedly stopping, beckoning or calling to passers-by or cars to solicit prostitution.

Police can arrest loiterers who act suspiciously in public areas, based on probable cause, even if they don’t solicit, Hoier said.

But if officers observe, say, a suspicious woman prowling a hotel hallway, they can do nothing unless they hear her proposition someone.

Hotel corridors are deemed private under existing county code, because only occupants and their guests have access, usually with electronic room keys shown to security guards, Hoier said.

Prostitutes bypass security when hotel guests take them to their rooms, he said. Some prostitutes then will wander the halls looking for the next john, he said.

Allowing prostitutes to lurk outside of rooms increases the likelihood of more serious crimes than soliciting, Hoier said. Some prostitutes spike customers’ drinks and steal their money, and others pick the pockets of unsuspecting guests in elevators, he said.

Marcella, who didn’t want her last name used, said she always returns to the casino after she’s done with a customer, because lingering in the halls “looks sleazy and cheesy.”

She has met ruthless prostitutes who drug their clients’ drinks, steal from them, and even blackmail men into paying more than they initially agreed upon.

“That’s not how it should be,” she said. “You’re supposed to be providing a service. You shouldn’t take them for everything they’ve got. I believe in karma.”

Hoier said the intent is to narrowly define “private areas” as corridors, not hotel rooms, homes or bedrooms.

Still, Allen Lichtenstein, an ACLU attorney, argued that police shouldn’t be allowed to arrest people in hallways who appear to be acting like prostitutes.

Problems arise whenever police are given too much leeway to interpret behavior, he said.

For instance, an officer could arrest a woman who went to a party dressed a bit risqué and becomes tipsy and starts flirting with men in a corridor, Lichtenstein said.

Police already can arrest someone in such a setting who actually solicits, and that should be enough, he said.

“What’s amazing is that in the recession when we’re trying to get visitors here, you have police that want to patrol the hallways hassling people,” Lichtenstein said.

He questioned how police could enforce the new rule without spending more money to expand patrols.

“It does not seem to be a good use of scarce resources,” he said.

Police also want to outlaw a lewd screening tactic: prostitutes asking those they suspect of being undercover police officers to fondle them or expose themselves.

A prostitute figures that if the person won’t comply, he’s probably a cop, Hoier said.

The proposed rule would stop short of the city code, which bars prostitutes from asking suspected officers whether they are cops. County officials had qualms about whether that rule might go too far, Hoier said.

Lichtenstein said he understands the county’s misgivings, because such a rule would violate a person’s right to free speech. Also, arresting a person because she asks someone to touch a body part is questionable, he said.

Hoier countered that prostitutes make their intentions clear, however.

“It’s the tone of the conversation,” Hoier said.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.