The Dove Spa was a massage parlor, which the police suspectedwas operating as a prostitution enterprise, but they had no directevidence to prove it. The police department decided to initiate anundercover operation in which a plainclothes detective entered andasked for the services of one of the women working there. Thewoman, of course, did not know he was a police officer, or waswearing a hidden microphone. For $100 and a $35 tip, she fondledthe officer’s genitals. The same officer went back to the massageparlor four more times. Over a period of five months, the sameofficer also visited the massage parlor in another town and allowedthe women, who were Chinese immigrants, to fondle him in exchangefor cash. This was done in an apparent effort to investigatesuspected prostitution and human trafficking. Ultimately, 30 policeofficers raided two businesses and arrested six people—four allegedprostitutes and two alleged pimps. The undercover methods weredefended by the police, but were criticized by legal experts andwomen’s advocates as “excessive, unnecessary, and misapplied” to aninvestigation that involved suspected human trafficking.

Evaluate the moral permissibility of police officer’s actions inconducting this investigation using the critical thinking skillslisted below:

-Isolate and evaluate the relevant facts on both sides

, -Identify the precise moral question to be answered, and

- Apply ethical principles to the moral question based on anobjective evaluation of the facts, only then drawing aconclusion.