Virtually all of the men arrested each year for "solicitation to commit CAN" (SOLCAN) are charged as the result of an undercover police operation. Such operations are conducted in places that have developed a reputation as homosexual "cruising" areas or centers of prostitution. In recent years, places targeted by police have included shopping malls and downtown streets in Raleigh, Oka Hester Park in Greensboro, I-85 rest areas in Alamance and Davidson Counties, shopping centers and picnic areas in Asheville, public parks in Rocky Mount and Wilmington, and public parks and downtown streets in Charlotte.

No statewide statistics on arrests for SOLCAN exist, but statistics compiled in 1981 for Wake County (Raleigh) showed that in most SOLCAN arrests, a man is charged with the solicitation of a female undercover officer posing as a prostitute. Only one-third of the men arrested for SOLCAN in Raleigh during that year were charged with soliciting a male police officer. Moreover, lawyers who handle these types of cases say that few of the men arrested for soliciting male police officers identify themselves as gay; most are married, and few have any contact with gay community organizations. It appears that no woman has ever been charged with SOLCAN with another woman in North Carolina.

As with CAN charges, SOLCAN charges are difficult (often impossible) for the state to prove. At least in the state’s larger cities, defendants who insist on a trial are found innocent more often than not. To convict someone of SOLCAN, the prosecution must prove that the defendant "enticed or induced" the police officer to engage in an act of oral or anal penetration. Since most people tend to be fairly indirect when proposing a sexual encounter, police officers in such operations usually ask leading questions designed to encourage the suspect to mention a specific sexual act. Without such questions and the defendant’s specific answers, the state will usually have no case. If the officer asks too many leading questions, however, it will seem as though the officer, rather than the suspect, is doing the soliciting. Judges and juries seem reluctant to convict a defendant if an officer pushed too hard to make the arrest. In many cases, the undercover "officers" are actually police academy students, and judges and juries sometimes discount the testimony of these interns. However, men charged with SOLCAN almost always plead guilty, for the same reasons and with the same consequences as those charged with CAN itself.

Law enforcement agencies in North Carolina used to, but no longer do, use tape recordings in undercover operations involving sexual solicitation. (They began using recordings in the early 1980s, perhaps as a result of a 1982 federal case in which a man successfully sued the Charlotte Police Department for false arrest and malicious prosecution, but stopped because the recordings often proved far more favorable for the defendants than for the officers.) Nonetheless, the extant recordings provide a valuable record of the design and execution of undercover "sting" operations. On every such recording that we have heard, the defendant went to great lengths to ensure that the officer was truly interested in sex before making a proposition. Some of the tapes showed conversations of 20 to 30 minutes or more before the defendant mentioned any sexual act. In a number or cases, the defendant asked the officer if he was a policeman, and the officer assured the defendant that he was not. On other tapes, officers mentioned specific gay bars or newspapers to suggest that they were gay themselves.

If the police have arrested you or may be about to arrest you for CAN or SOLCAN, it is important that you tell them nothing more than your name and address. You will not help your case by talking with the police after the arrest has been made.

SOLCAN is a misdemeanor. As of October 1, 1994, it is a Class 2 misdemeanor (N.C.G.S. ' 14-2.6(a)), carrying an active imprisonment term only for defendants with five or more prior convictions.

A related charge is "simple assault," a Class 2 misdemeanor (N.C.G.S. ' 14-33(a)). A person who touches another person’s genitals or other private place may be charged with assault if the other person did not appear to consent to being touched.

Additionally, some cities have local ordinances prohibiting certain public sexual activity. For example, it is unlawful to "willfully masturbate in any public place" in the City of Charlotte (Ordinance No. 584, Ordinance Book 47, page 406). Regulations of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles prohibit improper activity at highway rest areas.