The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 25 on a bill that would create a permit structure for escort agencies.<\/p>\n
LB513, introduced by Imperial Sen. Mark Christensen, would define lawful escort services and create permit structures that would be implemented by local governing bodies.<\/p>\n
Under the bill, it would be unlawful to:
\n\u2022 operate or portray a business as an escort agency without a permit;
\n\u2022 employ an individual if their agency does not hold a permit;
\n\u2022 allow an escort agency employee to be in a state of nudity while in the presence of a patron;
\n\u2022 allow an employee to touch a patron while in a state of semi-nudity;
\n\u2022 allow a patron to be in a state of nudity or semi-nudity while in the presence of an escort agency employee;
\n\u2022 allow a patron to touch an escort agency employee while he or she is in a state of seminudity; and
\n\u2022 provide a service to any person younger than 18 as a patron of the escort agency.<\/p>\n
Christensen said the bill could provide an additional tool for law enforcement to prevent prostitution and human trafficking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe private nature in which employees of such businesses work creates a climate where the line between legal and illegal activities is easily crossed,\u201d Christensen said. \u201cIn addition, and maybe most importantly, evidence is emerging that some of these businesses are engaging in the coercion of women and underage girls and boys through human trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Riskowski, executive director of the Nebraska Family Council, testified in support of the bill, saying escort services have been known to employ children. Five children in Omaha recently were rescued out of prostitution, Riskowski said.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking is a significant problem in Nebraska, he said, and currently a sting operation is necessary to arrest perpetrators. If escort services were regulated, Riskowski said, law enforcement officers could ask to see permits and arrest operators who were in violation of the law.<\/p>\n
Tom Barber, executive director of the Lincoln People\u2019s City Mission, also testified in support of the bill.<\/p>\n
The shelter takes in approximately 350 people every night who are involved in prostitution and sex trades, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know for certain Lincoln has a problem with prostitution,\u201d Barber said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the drug and alcohol addictions we see going on every day can be attributed to the sex industry,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cost to society for assisting them and their families with the social services we have to provide is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 25 on a bill that would create a permit structure for escort agencies. LB513,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-3612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-mark-christensen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3614,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions\/3614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}