Police in Hawaii may lose a law that allows them to have sex with prostitutes while on the job. Source: AAP
POLICE in Hawaii are facing the prospect of losing an exemption that allows them to have sex with prostitutes while on the job.
The state's Senate Judicial Committee chairman, Clayton Hee, has announced plans to get rid of the exemption in Hawaii's prostitution law that permits police to have sex, so long as it's part of an investigation.
His announcement at a committee hearing this week followed expressions of outrage after police had lobbied to keep the exemption for the so-called morals officers who are charged with the responsibility of investigating prostitution.
"To condone police officers' sexual penetration in making arrests is simply nonsensical to me," Hee said.
State legislators have been working to revamp Hawaii's decades-old law against prostitution. They toughened penalties against pimps and those who use prostitutes, and they also originally proposed scrapping the sex exemption for officers on duty.
But Honolulu police said last month that they needed the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Otherwise, they argued, prostitutes would insist on sex to identify undercover officers.
The legislation was then amended to restore the protection and the revised proposal passed the House and is now before the Senate.
While police say the exemption is necessary, Myles Breiner, a former Honolulu prosecutor who now works as a defence lawyer, testified that some of his clients who are prostitutes often complained to him that police had sex with them before making an arrest.
"How do we expect people to follow the law when the police engage in criminal conduct," Breiner asked.
Police testified in writing and in person to the House Judiciary Committee in February that keeping the exemption protected undercover officers from being found out. They said internal department protocols protected citizens against abuses.
Law enforcement experts say there's never any need to have sex with a prostitute to make an arrest, because the agreement to exchange money for sex is sufficient evidence of a crime.
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