Call for ban on condom confiscation

ALBANY -- Advocates for sex workers want New York to become the first state to ban police officers from confiscating condoms as evidence in prostitution cases, saying it has a chilling effect on disease protection.

To bolster their case, a group issued a report showing that fear of police harassment and arrest has prompted some prostitutes to carry fewer or no condoms and have sex without them, despite massive government giveaways.

"We did find, which is a good thing, that sex workers generally carry condoms and use condoms," said Sienna Baskin, an attorney with the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in Manhattan. But prostitutes also say police confiscate condoms as a kind of harassment, she said. In surveys, several sex workers said city police took their condoms without arresting them.

Calls to the New York Police Department and Manhattan district attorney's office were not immediately returned .

State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, a Brooklyn Democrat and sponsor of the bill to ban condom evidence, said she has been told the bill would get on the calendar for committee consideration in the Republican-controlled Senate. She said a similar measure has previously passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

"We are not endorsing prostitution," Montgomery said. "It is simply related to the fact that over 100,000 people right now are infected with HIV and AIDS in New York City."

Alexandra Waldhorn, spokeswoman for the city health department, said Tuesday that the city opposes the pending legislation.

Kate Hogan, a prosecutor who is the former president of the state district attorneys' association, said the real goal of prostitution cases is "to get the pimps and the sex traffickers." Giving up supporting evidence would be giving them "a lot of leeway we don't want to give them," she said.

In a bid to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, New York City health officials began giving out free condoms in 1971 and say they have given out 192 million since 2007. In a similar program, the state health department said it distributes more than 10 million annually.