by Human Rights Watch
JULY 19, 2012
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/19/us-police-practices-fuel-hiv-epidemicUS: Police Practices Fuel HIV EpidemicPolice in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and San Francisco are confiscating condoms from sex workers and transgender women, undermining health department campaigns to reduce HIV, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 112-page report, "
Sex Workers at Risk: Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities," documented in each city how police and prosecutors use condoms to support prostitution charges. The practice makes sex workers and transgender women reluctant to carry condoms for fear of arrest, causes them to engage in sex without protection, and puts them at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people for the report, including 200 current and former sex workers as well as outreach workers, advocates, prosecutors, public defenders, police, and health department officials.
The report includes testimony from sex workers and transgender women who said that police harass, threaten, and arrest them for carrying condoms.
...law enforcement efforts should not interfere with the right of anyone, including sex workers, to protect their health, Human Rights Watch said.
VIDEO:
Human Rights Watch criticizes D.C. police in new reportBy Michael K. Lavers on July 19, 2012
A new report concludes that the confiscation of condoms from prostitutes and other sex workers during police investigations places them at increased risk of HIV.
Human Rights Watch officially released the [112]-page report at a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday.
Others [interviewed for the report] pointed to what they described... as the Metropolitan Police Department's "3-condom rule."
"In 2011 they locked me up.... The cop told me I could have three condoms and threw the others out, I had 10 altogether. Also, an open condom is a charge. I've been locked up for it, the cops told me they were locking me up for an open condom."
Human Rights Watch urges law enforcement and prosecutors in the four cities highlighted in the report to adopt policies that prohibit the use of condom possession as evidence against suspected sex workers. The report further calls upon the MPD, the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco Police Departments to emphasize the importance of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. It also urges the D.C. Council and New York and California lawmakers to either repeal or reform broad loitering laws....
Transgender activist Ruby Corado, who is among those who spoke at the National Press Club, told the Blade that this report does not come as a surprise.
