No more sex for civilian agents

City police changed the rules for civilian agents used in their investigations.

Chief Leroy Chahley told the Edmonton Police Commission that public complaints had led the department to stop using sex agents during investigations of brothels.

“Since there has been considerable concern ... I have decided to change it,” he said later.

“Part of my mandate is to ensure that the methods we use are acceptable to the general public.”

But he denied he had made a mistake and said at least one case using information gathered by sex agents hadn’t yet gone to court.

The prosecutor would decide whether to use the evidence, he said.

Chahley warned the changes would make police work more difficult.

Agents enabled police “to gather the best evidence available; now, we’ll probably gather the secondbest evidence available.”

He said that his decision wasn’t influenced by a legal opinion presented to the commission, stating that it had the power to order a change.

The issue became public a month earlier during the trial of two people charged with running a bawdy house at a massage parlour.

Both were ultimately acquitted, but during the trial, civilians, including the teenage brother of a police officer, testified they were paid to have sex with women at the massage parlour.

Chahley wouldn’t discuss what police would do in future, but said it was possible civilians would still be used in other ways during those investigations.

In a report to the commission, he said an “alternative enforcement strategy” would include calling customers as witnesses and “full identification” of the people selling sex.

Ald. Mel Binder, a police commission member who had wanted an end to sex agents, said he now considered the matter closed.

Rick Stroppel, president of the Edmonton Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, said he was happy with the change.