Five police agencies from three counties participated in an escort service sting a week ago.

A total of 20 arrests were made for such violations as sex solicitation and not having a sexually oriented business license, with more arrests pending, said Salt Lake City police detective Dwayne Baird.

Officers from Salt Lake City, Layton, Park City, Midvale and the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office participated in the operation, which Baird described as a kind of training session.

"We were teaching other agencies how to operate vice-type undercover work," he said. "Our responsibility was to teach other agencies and put (the sting) together."

The problem of escort services doubling as prostitution businesses has spread past the main Salt Lake Valley, and some agencies don't have as much practice running vice operations, Baird said.

"We want to work together to resolve these problems. That's why we did it as a large operation with several agencies," he said.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, which has conducted escort stings in the past, described the event as more of a "compliance check."

"We wanted to make sure they were following the ordinances, had licenses, etc.," said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Mickelsen.

Three precincts from the sheriff's office participated in the event, including the Holladay, Millcreek and Cottonwood Heights precincts.

The sheriff's office made four arrests, three for not having a license and one for prostitution. The majority of arrests were class B misdemeanors.

"There is a problem that occurs. It's not a huge problem but one that has to be monitored on a regular basis," Mickelsen said. "It occurs everywhere, not in just one or two areas of town."

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