The Minneapolis Police Department is discontinuing prostitution stings following three criminal cases being dismissed in the last month due to the officers engaging in sexual activities with the sex workers.
> “The Minneapolis Police Department is taking immediate action by reviewing these cases,” Police Chief Janeé Harteau said in a statement. “We are no longer using undercover operations to investigate suspected prostitution in massage businesses.
In a case which was dismissed on August 7, the undercover officer did not negotiate a price for the sex acts until after the woman in question was already fondling his genitals.
> “This behavior is completely unnecessary to the evidence gathering process, to prove prostitution police need only show that there’s an agreement of sex for money,” the woman’s attorney Jeff Dean argued. “The judge ruled that the police officer’s sexual conduct was outrageous and violated due process and that the charges should therefore be dismissed.”
He went on to represent the same woman in another case which was also dismissed on Monday.
He pointed out that six years ago, the laws were changed so that officers did not need to engage in sexual contact with the subject of their investigation.
But officers continued to do so anyways.
> “This was a published decision by the Minnesota Court of Appeals putting the police department on notice that this type of conduct is outrageous, unconstitutional and must be stopped,” Dean said. “Yet the very same police department, even with that clear notice, continues to engage in the same outrageous conduct.”
After the officer rolled over, moans were heard on the recording until other police barged in to complete the raid.
An attorney for the officer argued that the cop didn’t think there would be enough evidence unless a sex act was performed.
> “If undercover women can make cases in undercover work without any kind of sexual contact, why is it that men seem to have this kind of issue?” The woman’s public defender asked.
While the department is investigating their practices, none of the officers who engaged in the sex acts are personally under investigation.
*Originally published at* [*__Sputnik News__*](http://sputniknews.com/us/20150824/1026145735.html)
