NEWARK — When the Newark undercover vice officer entered the massage parlor on Bloomfield Avenue, he was supposed to be setting up a sting to bust a suspected prostitution ring.

The woman inside asked him if he wanted a massage. When the officer said yes, she asked him to take off his clothes. He complied, stripping down to his underwear, according to a police report.

But when she asked him if he wanted a "full massage," what happened next set off series of events that has forced a change in the way the department handles undercover operations.

According to the police report, obtained Thursday by The Star-Ledger, the undercover officer — who was wired for sound — pleasured himself as he fondled the 22-year-old woman who was later arrested on prostitution charges.

In the wake of the Sept. 28 incident, Police Director Samuel DeMaio said he will now review and approve all future sting operations before they are launched and has ordered additional training for vice cops.

"There is no department protocol in place for what to do in an undercover vice operation. And that’s what we’re going to change," DeMaio said in an interview Thursday. "Looking at it, certainly, there’s no bad intentions here on (the officer’s) part. I just don’t think he was prepped properly."

DeMaio would not say what the six veteran detectives involved in the Sept. 28 operation — all veteran officers but new to the vice squad — should have done differently. However, he said, even though Newark trains its officers for narcotics stings, there is no protocol in place for undercover vice operations, including prostitution stings.

DeMaio said the six officers — the undercover officer, three arresting detectives and two supervisors — have been placed on administrative duty. In addition, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Professional Standards Bureau is expected to review the incident, authorities said.

Union leaders defended the detectives, saying they were new transfers to the vice squad who hadn’t received proper training.

"I would gladly work in a radio car with any one of them. They have dedicated their lives to this city," said James Stewart Jr., vice president of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police. "Unfortunately, as is often the case with departmental transfers, these officers were thrust into a situation without any outside training to prepare them on the textbook method of preparing a case for a successful conclusion through the judicial process."

According to the police report, the woman offered the undercover officer various sexual favors, but then he declined her advances, repeatedly saying he was "new to this." Eventually, he told her he would like to pleasure himself while touching her breast, the report said.

The woman asked for money "up front" for the massage, and the officer paid her $40, according to the report. Once he began pleasuring himself, the officer asked "how much more for the breast touch." She replied "whatever," and the officer gave her another $40, the report said.

Vice detectives swooped in moments later and arrested two women, charging them with promoting prostitution and several narcotics offenses, the report said.

DeMaio said the officer likely believed he was doing what he could to preserve the sting operation while trying to "avoid her having physical contact ..."

Stewart said the incident is not indicative of a larger departmental problem, but shows the need for more realistic training of officers before they are placed in compromising scenarios.

"I have no doubt that once this investigation is concluded it will show proper training by the department could have avoided this situation," he said.