Businesses such as strip clubs, escort services, and adult book and video stores must close from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. or face criminal charges.
DALLAS — Thursday was the first day Dallas police enforced the city's new sexually oriented business ordinance, which puts limits on the hours of operation for strip clubs, escort services, adult book and video stores and more.
Under a new ordinance passed unanimously by Dallas City Council members in January 2022, these businesses must close from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Enforcement of the ordinance began Thursday, Nov. 30. Dallas Police Department The police department announced that it has sent letters to each licensed business office. Each licensed business was visited with a copy of a letter outlining the revised ordinance targeting sexually oriented businesses.
Police said everyone was in compliance after the first day.
Enforcement of the ordinance, passed nearly two years ago, has been delayed by legal resistance. On the same day the Dallas City Council approved the ordinance, a nonprofit trade association whose members include four adult cabarets, an adult bookstore, and sexually oriented businesses said the ordinance violates the First Amendment right to free expression. They filed a complaint against the city, alleging that their rights were being violated.
In October, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the city of Dallas and issued an opinion invalidating a lower court's ruling blocking the passed ordinance.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in an October ruling that the city's evidence “reasonably shows that the ordinance is constitutional.” [sexually-oriented businesses] Increased “harmful side effects” such as late night work and crime. ”
The judgment also stated that “the ordinance also [sexually-oriented businesses] Although erotic dancing is a protected form of expression, the ruling supports the argument that the ordinance does not prohibit large-scale operations, but rather restricts “time, place, and duration.” ing. the way they operate. ”
The city of Dallas was looking at evidence-based links between business hours and crime statistics.
“From the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021, there were many mass shootings in and around Dallas. [sexually-oriented businesses] killed multiple people.Police responded by forming a task force and patrolling the area. [sexually-oriented businesses] On busy nights after midnight. Operating for approximately eight months during 2021, the task force made 123 felony arrests, responded to 134 citations, issued more than 1,100 citations, and made more than 350 drug and weapon seizures. “,” the judgment said.
The ruling also found that approximately 67% of all aggravated assaults, rapes, robberies, and murders that occur between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. are from sexually oriented businesses, according to data compiled from 2019 to 2021. It said it occurred within a 500-foot radius. city. In 2021, that percentage jumped to 76%, according to the filing.
