THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE — Alaska lawmakers are considering making sexual contact between law enforcement officers and sex workers a crime.
Law enforcement officers can legally have sexual contact with people they are investigating for crimes, but Anchorage Rep. Matt Claman is sponsoring legislation to eliminate that allowance, Alaska Public Media reported.
“(I) brought House Bill 112 forward to close a loophole and eliminate a gray area about sexual contact during police investigations,” Claman said.
Claman said he proposed the bill after he saw a statewide survey that found that 90 percent of respondents did not know police could legally have intercourse with sex workers and do not think it should be legal.
Sex worker advocate Maxine Doogan said current state law only protects people in custody, not people under investigation.
“So police are allowed to have sexual contact as part of sting operations because that’s part of investigating prostitution,” she said.
Doogan said multiple women have reported sexual contact with law enforcement officers to her organization, Community United for Safety and Protection.
An Alaska State Trooper spokesman said the department has a policy against sexual contact during investigations. The Anchorage Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Community United for Safety and Protection is also pushing for legislation to expunge prostitution charges from a person’s criminal record. No legislation to remove those charges has been proposed yet.
