The Lakewood City Council has adopted a new law to help police in the city’s ongoing effort against the sex trade.

It will now be illegal for a suspected prostitute to try to avoid an arrest by exposing herself, touching someone sexually, asking someone to touch her or even asking the potential customer if he’s a police officer.

Those are some of the tricks prostitutes use to evade the law. Often, a refusal to touch means the client is an undercover officer, and the prostitute can stop talking to avoid an arrest.

Some officers would play along with the requests to get the arrest, but others would avoid it for health and moral reasons. With Monday night’s 6-0 vote, city staff say they believe Lakewood is the first city in Washington to adopt such rules.

Mayor Doug Richardson said the city knows it is steering into unchartered waters.

“Leading is not a bad thing when there are appropriate things to get done,” he said.

But Councilman Walter Neary – who voted against the changes – said he didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of police arresting a person for simply asking whether someone is a cop.

“I don’t think it should be illegal to ask a question,” he said.

Lakewood generated regionwide attention last month when its police department proposed the changes. The changes are modeled after a law in Las Vegas, which has become synonymous with prostitution.

In that city, even if a cop doesn’t observe signs that someone might be selling sex for money, that person can still be arrested for asking a john if he’s an officer, according to Lakewood City Attorney Heidi Wachter.

Locally, officials in other Interstate 5 cities that fight prostitution, like Tacoma or Fife, say they haven’t heard of the problem where officers have to choose between making the arrest and following their moral beliefs.

Wachter said even with the new rules, asking a john whether he’s an officer will not result in arrest by itself. The question will likely be asked after the officer observes other evidence of prostitution, including standing in a parking lot, waving down vehicles and leaving with a driver for a few minutes at a time.

“If you haven’t developed the context, it would be impossible to ask the question,” Wachter said.

Councilman Ron Cronk agreed, saying the new laws represent a “situation” of police suspecting a prostitute.

“The situation is written into law,” he said.

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com