Escort services are like familiar people at a masquerade ball. Everyone knows who they really are, but the masks make them appear confusingly different.
That confusion extends all the way into the court system, and that is what makes Salt Lake City's current effort to strengthen ordinances against escort services so complex.Legally, cities can't prohibit people from paying money to have an escort for the evening. Constitutional guarantees to free speech and assembly, as well as to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, make a full ban on such services ill-advised.
But law enforcement and city officials know escort business often are fronts for prostitution. Mere friendship and conversation aren't so scarce that men have to buy it. Nor are all customers content to follow the official hands-off rules.
So far in 1997, the city's police have hired 24 escorts in undercover operations. Of those, 17 agreed to perform a sex act, which is strictly against the law. Yet, despite it all, no escort service has had its license revoked in the city during the past five years. Not surprisingly, city officials are concerned. They ought to be.
But they can't afford to make hasty changes to existing ordinances that they later will regret.
City leaders are grappling with a proposed ordinance that would raise the minimum age of an escort service employee from 18 to 21. Employees would have to pay a licensing fee of $500, up from the current $150. Other sexually oriented businesses, including those that provide nude dancers and "entertainment," would also see dramatic increases in fees. These are reasonable changes. Why should the city allow escorts to be younger than the minimum age for consuming alcohol? And why should the city collect less than is needed to cover the enormous costs of undercover work to adequately patrol these businesses?
But other proposed changes make little sense. One would remove the requirement that escorts and nude entertainers obtain a certificate from the City-County Health Department. According to the logic, such a requirement implies the city condones illegal activities that could lead to health problems.
Another change would prohibit sexually oriented businesses from including their city business license numbers in advertising. Again, some people worry the license number implies an official tolerance for what everyone knows goes on in such establishments.
Both proposals ignore a simple truth: Most city officials, if they had their way, would outlaw all sexually oriented businesses. But they can't. Instead, they must do the next best thing, which is to regulate them, keep them away from children and minors and crack down on activity that is illegal and a danger to public health. The health and welfare of the city as a whole ought to be the top concern.
At the moment, officials report, the city is home to 12 escort services and five private clubs or taverns that offer semi-nude dancing. Of the 70 people who are employed as escorts, 23 are under the age of 21.
Unfortunately, the city can't throw everyone out of the masquerade, but it ought to carefully and consistently seek better ways to unmask the scoundrels for what they are.