Shooting deaths, drugs, abandoned cars and discarded condoms come with the territory when a strip club operates in a community, according to a report on adult entertainment facilities compiled for the Prince George’s County Council.
Patrolling such establishments in a county where the industry is largely unregulated can be particularly tricky, according to a spokesman for the county Police Department.
“It is a challenging task,” said Lt. Terence Sheppard. “A lot of the rules and laws and regulations really don’t apply to these kinds of clubs.”
Sheppardsaid clubs are not allowed to serve alcohol. Police use special units and work with zoning officials, the Fire Department and other entities to ensure that clubs are not overcrowded or in violation of other licenses they might hold.
“With a club like that, you have to try to attack it from as many different angles as you can,” Sheppard said.
Other tactics used by police, Sheppard said, are best left unsaid so as to not tip off owners. But part of the problem sometimes is just tracking down a club’s location, Sheppard said. Some open up in a warehouse for a few nights or a few weeks and then disappear as suddenly as they had arrived.
“A lot of these clubs are fly-by-night,” Sheppard said. “It’s hard for us to try to detect those types of activities.”
Police try to catch word of new clubs by monitoring the Internet, Sheppard said, and communities have been diligent in alerting police to activity in their neighborhoods.
“The community has shown really, at least in my impression,” Sheppard said, “that they really don’t want something like this in their community.”
Effie Wright said her Capitol Heights neighborhood has become noisier and more violent since a strip club open nearby.
“It’s been a bad change,” the 88-year-old resident said. “There’s not so much peace and quiet.”
Wright said she thought the business was a limousine service at first since she saw so many of the vehicles around.
Then, Wright said, she heard fighting and occasionally gunshots from that direction. Wright said the club opens early in the morning and stays open very late on weekends. These days, she stays behind locked doors when commotion starts and never calls police.
“I don’t even bother,” Wright said.
