San Diego Cops Say Detaining, Photographing Strippers Just Part of Their Job

San Diego
strippers are suing the city police department after cops
allegedly detained them and forced them to pose for semi-nude
pictures during routine licensing inspections. The lawsuit—brought
by two strip clubs and 30 of their employees—was filed Wednesday
and accuses the city’s vice squad of violating dancers’ Fourth
Amendment right to avoid unreasonable search and seizure. 

In March, about 10 officers showed up at Cheetahs Gentlemen’s
Club “with guns and bulletproof vests,” according to the lawsuit.
The clubs say officers stuck around for several hours, detaining
and photographing strip club employees. “They asked us for our
licenses and then took down our Social Security and had us line up
in the back of the dressing rooms and take pictures,” stripper
Katelynn Delorie told local TV station 10News at the time. Another
employee said cops asked dancers to remove articles of clothing so
they could photograph all of their tattoos. 

The cops, of course, say they were just doing their jobs as
prescribed. From
the Los Angeles Times: 

Nude entertainment establishments require a city permit, which
gives police the right to make “regular inspections” and requires
employees to show their identification cards, according to police
spokesman Lt. Kevin Mayer.

Taking photographs of the employees, including of distinctive
tattoos, is a routine part of the inspection process, Mayer added.
Inspections are meant to deter the employees from engaging in
illegal acts.

“The San Diego code mandates we make these inspections,” Mayer
said. “This is not a criminal matter, this is a regulatory
matter.”

Do employees at San Diego department stores have to regularly
produce ID? Do SoCal Subway cashiers get routinely photographed by
cops? What makes working at a strip club such an inherently
different proposition that it justifies city officials keeping an
ongoing photo database of employees?

Sure, I can see why vice cops might want to regularly
visit and photograph semi-nude women, just like
Hawaii vice cops want sleeping with prostitutes to be part of
their job. But the pretense they’ve cooked up to do
so—strippers are just criminals waiting to happen if not
closely monitored—is offensive and lame.

San Diego strippers are all
required to get “entertainer’s permits” (let’s not even get started
on that one right now) and the city apparently feels that regularly
photographing entertainers—and any distinctive marks or tattoos
they have—is just part of the permitting process. If so, that
permitting process would seem to be pretty darn unconstitutional.
Effectively, it allows cops to carry out a neverending
general warrant against strippers. 

In a statement, a San Diego Police Deartment spokesperson said
it “is currently conducting an internal investigation into
allegations related to recent enforcement at Cheetah’s Adult
Nightclub” and “will not comment on this on-going internal
investigation.”

The clubs and women are seeking unspecified damages from the
city and the police chief for “emotional distress and pain.”
Attorney Dan Gilleon told the Los Angeles
Times that damages should be sufficient to “punish and to
make an example” of the city and Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman and
to deter others “from engaging in similar conduct.”