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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, April 10, 2023 Page 5 178 Mr. Trudgeon explained there is a third party portal where the therapists enter in 179 their information and the City gets a report back. This company does the 180 background checks but staff does still coordinate with the Police Department if 181 anything hits from the background check to try to find out more and also if any 182 knowledge the Police Department may have from other communities. The City is 183 already using that third party to do the background checks and is not taking much 184 time directly on the hundred therapists. 185 186 Councilmember Groff indicated from what he understands, the City has laws in 187 place that would make sexual trafficking behavior illegal. The City is trying to do 188 something else to enforce that law, which seems a little backwards to him. He 189 wondered what laws are already in place that the City is trying to enforce but are 190 unable to. 191 192 Chief Scheider explained the main thing the Police Department is trying to do is 193 disrupt the business. The people are actually profiting from this. The Police De- 194 partment views the people working in these establishments as victims. This is not 195 something these people want to do, they get forced into it, coerced, and sometimes 196 are immigrants and fearful of not getting their passport back or being able to work 197 to put food on the table. The Police DepartmentÓs main focus into the investigations 198 is to disrupt the criminal enterprise, which is making a lot of money. To do those 199 kinds of investigations takes a tremendous amount of time. 200 201 Mr. Trudgeon reviewed what the City is doing to stop the illegal businesses and 202 indicated if the City has some better regulations, it is another way to ensure going 203 into it that it is very clear what the expectations are. 204 205 Councilmember Groff asked how many cases have come forward on the existing 206 massage businesses. 207 208 Chief Scheider explained there are very few direct complaints. The Police 209 Department has gotten information from online searches, information from other 210 agencies like the BCAÓs Human Trafficking Task Force. The Police Department 211 has received tips coming in that way but very few complaints, other than people 212 frustrated that the business is down the street from them. That is what takes these 213 cases so long to come together because the Police Department has to build the case 214 with maybe an informant or someone who comes forward with information or a 215 victim and the Police Department does not see that in these cases. 216 217 Mayor Roe stated he wanted to follow up on this string of thought because it gets 218 to the question that the City is dealing with. There are two things being requested, 219 one is to stiffen up their requirements and make it much more difficult for the bad 220 actors to either operate the businesses and or for people to get a therapist license 221 who should not be getting them. Then there is the question of this cap and the cap