OLYMPIA—Law enforcement agencies could soon have additional powers to combat child prostitution in Washington.
The House voted 87-9 on Saturday to allow law enforcement to record private conversations and to use children in certain aspects of investigating child prostitution.
“We have an epidemic of child prostitution in Washington and too few law enforcement tools to deal with it,” said Dickerson (D-Seattle). “The safety of the children, who are sometimes as young as 10-years-old, outweighs any right of privacy that pimps might claim for themselves.”
A 2008 study done for the City of Seattle by Debra Boyer estimated that 300 to 500 children were victimized by child prostitution in the Seattle area, with victims often becoming involved at age 13 or 14.
Earlier this year, an Investigate West report on mushrooming child prostitution quoted Lt. Eric Sano of the Seattle Police Department as saying that Internet trafficking had driven the numbers even higher, to “more like 500 to 800 kids today.”
Dickerson’s House Bill 1874 creates an exception to laws that generally prohibits the recording of private conversations without the consent of all parties to the communication. The exception only applies when there is probable cause to believe the communication involves the commercial sexual abuse of a minor.
The bill also authorizes law enforcement to employ a minor in investigating certain sex
offenses when the minor’s aid is limited to telephone or electronic communication or when an investigation is authorized by one-party consent rules.
At a public hearing on Dickerson’s bill, witnesses said new approaches for combating child prostitution are needed because the victims are too afraid of their pimps to testify against them.
“These are children who are in the most despicable and desperate of circumstances,” said Don Pierce, a former police chief of Bellingham and current executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. “We ask you to allow us to help them.”
“We don’t have the tools necessary to do an effective investigation,” said Pierce. “This is one of the tools that will help us.”
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On the Web:
Debra Boyer, Who Pays the Price: Assessment of Youth Involvement In Prostitution in Seattle (2008)
“Prostitution of children in Seattle mushrooms, while Portland’s reputation suffers,” Investigate West, Jan. 14, 2011.