NASHVILLE, TN – Nashville Metro Police have cracked down on local strip clubs for alleged violations of metro ordinances, including operating without a proper license and violations of a “three-foot rule” which prohibits physical contact between dancers and their patrons.Metro police placed a padlock on the doors of the Club Platinum following the issuance of a court order that found the club to be in contempt of court for failing to obey a previous court order, according to Nashville television station WKRN
“I’m sorry it came to this, but that’s what happens when you disobey a court order,” Karl Dean of the Davidson County Public Defenders Office told another Nashville TV station, WTVF.
The ordinances in question require dancers to have permits and follow a set of rules, including the three-foot rule, in order for the club to operate legally. Unidentified undercover officers told the local TV stations that dancers at Club Platinum were violating both the permit requirement and other facets of the ordinance.
“When officers went inside this club on different dates and times, the three-foot rule wasn’t being honored at all,” one of the undercover officers involved in the sting told WTVF.
The officer added that the undercover team observed first hand at least five violations of the law.
“The dancers told undercover officers that they were aware of the new adult entertainment laws and regulations, but they were trying to get around it,” the officer told WTVF.
Another local club, the Brass Stables, has also been padlocked, but that closure came due to bankruptcy, according to WKRN. Metro officers told WKRN that they would have closed the Brass Stables themselves, had the bank not gotten to it first.
“At one time this year in Brass Stables there was a verbal agreement for an act of prostitution,” one unidentifed undercover officer told WKRN.
Two other clubs not identified by name in the WKRN reports have also been fined up to $500 by the Metro board that regulates Nashville’s sexually oriented businesses, according to WKRN.
The Metro police have a single investigator who conducts compliance checks for the city’s 18 adult clubs, according to WKRN. The inspector makes surprise visits during business hours to document ordinance violations. Recent inspections by the investigator, and his subsequent testimony in court, led to the issuance of the court order and this week’s raids.
