NYPD Will No Longer Seize Condoms Belonging To Sex Workers

It seems as if the New York Police Department will have to start planting new evidence on suspected sex workers when they try to arrest them in the future.

According to Mail (link below), the NYPD caved to pressure from civil rights groups this week by announcing that they have a new policy when arresting suspected sex workers.

Under the new policy announced Monday, officers may continue to seize condoms as evidence in sex-trafficking and promotion of prostitution cases, but they will not use them in support of prostitution cases. Critics had said the previous policy amounted to police harassment, and noted that New York City spends more than $1 million a year to distribute free condoms. "The NYPD heard from community health advocates and took a serious look at making changes to our current policy as it relates to our broader public safety mission," Police Commissioner William Bratton said in announcing the new policy.

Despite this announcement, some activists still doubt there will be any follow-up.

"This is a step in the right direction but it doesn't go far enough and creates a loophole big enough to drive a truck through," said Andrea Ritchie, a coordinator at Streetwise and Safe, a New York City-based group that has long opposed the department's previous policy. "We will be monitoring the NYPD carefully to see how they implement this policy."

Others think it needs to go even further than simply a bunch of talk.

Corinne Carey, of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said lawmakers should go further than the NYPD by prohibiting law enforcement from seizing condoms as evidence of sex trafficking and other prostitution-related crimes. "This (the new policy) is really too limited for us to be happy about it," she said. "The message needs to be that condoms aren't criminal." A 2010 study by the city's Department of Health surveyed more than 60 sex workers and found that more than half had condoms confiscated by police. Nearly a third said they had at times not carried condoms because they feared getting into trouble.

Via Mail