By Brent Champaco
The News Tribune

Attention Lakewood prostitutes: Asking one of your potential clients to touch you sexually to prove he’s not a cop could land you in handcuffs.

On a 6-1 vote Monday night, the Lakewood City Council adopted new rules to help police catch suspected prostitutes and avoid health risks. It is now the first city locally to make it illegal for a person 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.

As I wrote in my story last week, prostitutes are using such tricks to avoid being arrested. Some officers would do it to get the arrest, but others would avoid it for health and moral reasons.

Lakewood has received region-wide attention this week because it’s the first city in Washington to try this. The law is modeled after Las Vegas, which allows police to arrest someone simply for asking if a john is a cop.

Lakewood City Councilman said he was uncomfortable with police arresting someone for simply asking a question.

City Attorney Heidi Wachter said although an officer can make an arrest once a prostitute asks the question, it won’t happen unless the officer observes other signs that the suspect is a prostitute. That includes standing in a parking lot, waving down vehicles and leaving with a driver for minutes at a time.

Read more about this story in Wednesday’s News Tribune.