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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,April 10, 2023 Page 5 separate part regarding enforcement and if the City is able to pull those pieces apart and have some work done not by the City's Police Officers. Mr. Trudgeon explained there is a third party portal where the therapists enter in their information and the City gets a report back. This company does the back- ground checks but staff does still coordinate with the Police Department if anything hits from the background check to try to find out more and also if any knowledge the Police Department may have from other communities from the Law Enforce- ment network. The City is already using that third party to do the background checks and is not taking much time directly on the hundred therapists. Councilmember Groff indicated from what he understands, the City has laws in place that would make sexual trafficking behavior illegal. The City is trying to do something else to enforce that law, which seems a little backwards to him. He wondered what laws are already in place that the City is trying to enforce but are unable to. Chief Scheider explained the main thing the Police Department is trying to do is disrupt the business. The people are actually profiting from this. The Police De- partment views the people working in these establishments as victims. This is not something these people want to do, they get forced into it, coerced, and sometimes are immigrants and fearful of not getting their passport back or being able to work to put food on the table. The Police Department's main focus into the investigations is to disrupt the criminal enterprise, which is making a lot of money. To do those kinds of investigations takes a tremendous amount of time. Mr. Trudgeon reviewed what the City is doing to stop the illegal businesses and indicated if the City has some better regulations, it is another way to ensure going into it that it is very clear what the expectations are. Councilmember Groff asked how many cases have come forward on the existing massage businesses. Chief Scheider explained there are very few direct complaints. The Police Depart- ment has gotten information from online searches, information from other agencies like the BCA's Human Trafficking Task Force. The Police Department has re- ceived tips coming in that way but very few complaints,other than people frustrated that the business is down the street from them. That is what takes these cases so long to come together because the Police Department has to build the case with maybe an informant or someone who comes forward with information or a victim and the Police Department does not see that in these cases. Mayor Roe stated he wanted to follow up on this string of thought because it gets to the question that the City is dealing with. There are two things being requested, one is to stiffen up their requirements and make it much more difficult for the bad