Police monitoring Backpage to ensure new prostitution taxes get paid

The City of Bendal has implemented a new ordinance allowing prostitution only if the working girls pay a commission to the city. This new ordnance has balanced the city budget but has also created some additional work for the city police.

To ensure everyone is paying an officer ha beens assigned to check ads online and cross reference the commission payment list. While some are calling this law a degradation of the local moral compass, others think it is a step in the right direction.

Even the actual prostitutes are finding that the law helps them. We spoke to one lady who goes by the street name of Chastity who is in love with this prostitution tax. “The police set up this simple survey app thing for our phones. When we book an appointment we enter the time, location, customers phone number and agreed upon cost. At the end of the month I get a bill for the commission the city wants. It makes me feel safe to know if I go missing the cops can look at the report and find out where I was and trace that phone number.”

Many other working girls indicated they felt this tax made them feel safer. Some customer worry that police will use this information to track them. But the Mayor insists the police are not tracking “Johns”. “Look at it this way, in only a few months we have balanced the city budget and by the end of the year will have a surplus. Why would we want to do anything that would jeopardize the budget?”

The department says it has taken some time but they now have a system to track who is paying and who is not. An officer checks online ads like what are found on Backpage and sets up appointments. If that appointment is not entered into the system the officer shows up to arrest the offender for tax evasion.

A number of cities are watching Bendal to see if they will implement the same tax system.