USA Today reported that legislators in both the Hawaiian House and Senate are mulling over the lifting of a ban that allows police officers to have sex with prostitutes legally. The ban was initially struck down after state police officers was able to successfully lobby the exemption after insisting that the exemption was needed for them to carry out undercover investigations that would require them to work with pimps and prostitutes. It was not clear whether the police have taken advantage of the loophole, or how often do they uphold the exemption.
Police expert Derek Marsh, however, questions the need for Hawaiian police to have the exemption in place. He said, "It doesn't help your case, and at worst you further traumatize someone. And do you think he or she is going to trust a cop again?"
The Associated Press confirmed that an amended bill indicating the strikedown on that exemptions has been passed out of the House Judicial Committee of the state. Democratic chairman of the House Judicial Committee, Representative Karl Rhoads, said that he wanted the bill to return to its original language regarding the police exemption, which would bar police from engaging in sex or sadomasochistic acts with prostitutes.
AP said that the amended bill with the police exemption met with much backlash from the lawmakers, with the majority saying that the police should have have the ability to bed prostitutes legally. Honolulu police have decided to dropped their opposition to the strikedown of the exemption while assuring the public that the state law enforcement has policies that would prevent such abuse of the law.
Members of the state House and Senate are reportedly negotiating on a version of House Bill 1926. The current discrepancies between the House draft and of the Senate's regarding the contested bill needs to be reconciled in one, final document. Upon voting for approval in the Hawaiian House and Senate, Governor Neil Abercrombie is expected to sign the law into law, AP said.
