Cops bare all to make arrests

The police officer lay face down on the massage table, on duty, unarmed and naked.
For 30 minutes Shu Yuan Sun worked the muscles of the officer's back, his shoulders and legs, and then told him, "Turn over." And that, said Hallandale Beach Police Sgt. Todd Crevier, is when the crime went down.
While the arrests this month of three women on charges of prostitution and practicing health care without a license are described as part of an ongoing investigation into human trafficking, having undercover officers strip naked and engage in skin-to-skin contact to make arrests has revived an old debate.
Just how far should police go to make a prostitution arrest, and just how vulnerable are they when buck-naked and alone in a place run by crime suspects?
see the real pix after the cut.........

Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy said the nude stings are integral to a joint investigation with federal authorities into human trafficking, where women, many from China, are held as sex slaves. Florida ranks third in the nation in the number of such cases, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
"This is not just an act of solicitation, but an organized crime effort," Flournoy said. "It is not just a street-walker. It is a more sophisticated operation that requires a different mode of investigating."
According to arrest reports, masseuses Ying "Lulu" Zhao, 37, and Shu Yuan "Nikki" Sun, 42, worked at the MemeX Massage Parlor at 2500 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. for owner Yan Wang, 50. All were arrested April 3 after undercover visits by Crevier and Detective Carmine Tufano.
During one visit, the woman identified as Nikki "brushed her hand across my penis" and then "made an up and down motion with her hand" to indicate an offer of masturbation, wrote one officer. The officer said he declined, saying, "Maybe next time."
"It sounds like a lot of fun, but it's a nasty, tough job," said Charlie Fuller, a retired Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who now runs the International Association of Undercover Officers. "The prostitutes have a better intelligence system than any agency in the world. You have to disrobe or they won't talk to you."
Flournoy said detectives themselves decide how far to go when working an undercover assignment.
"Sometimes officers have to make their own moral decision as it relates what they feel comfortable with," he said. "But I have had massages and they are unclothed. [These officers] are portraying themselves not as police but as regular customers."
Female officers also conduct undercover sex-related stings. While they are not asked to go nude, they do pose as prostitutes in operations targeting johns. Still, "they are not very comfortable with playing that [role]," Flournoy said.
Policies on undercover operations vary from department to department in South Florida. In Broward County, "the State Attorney's Office does not have a 'policy' on such matters," said spokesman Ron Ishoy. " When a law enforcement agency brings us a case requesting us to file formal charges, one of the things we always look at … and not just with these kinds of crimes … is how the stings were conducted and how the arrests were made. Those details become a factor at trial.

Flournoy said his officers are well-trained. "You should not be in a position of inducing a criminal act [the suspect] would not normally commit," he said.
While cops baring all does happen, many officers try to avoid being nude and on duty, in part because there is no place to hide a weapon or a recording device. In a recent Boca Raton case, undercover officers busted an escort service called Sara's Entertainment after several visits in which they resisted getting undressed because they were wearing a wire.
Veteran Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Jamie Benjamin, a former vice prosecutor, said, "Historically, it is a rare occasion when a police officer goes totally naked, and where it happens, it complicates prosecution."
Eric Schwartzreich, also a Fort Lauderdale defense lawyer, said a naked law officer opens the door for an argument that any sexual act was consensual.
"That is the million-dollar question: How far can they go?" Schwartzreich asked. "Where does the line get crossed?"
Were Schwartzreich running a police force, he said he would resist a firm rule banning nudity. Yet, he added, "In general, I don't think it is a good idea to have your police officers naked while on duty."
Howard Finkelstein, chief public defender in Broward County, said he didn't think assigning undercover officers to go without any cover is "worth it or appropriate."
"It forces [police] to act badly, and will have zero impact on prostitution," Finkelstein said. "It is seedy, back-alley, icky, and we don't want our cops doing that, especially so when it's meaningless."
But Flournoy said undercover busts in at least four other Hallandale Beach massage parlors have squelched their proliferation in his city. In South Florida, where massage parlors are ubiquitous, that has attracted notice from other police departments.
"They have been successful," Flournoy said, "to the point where other agencies have requested to look at how we target these cases."