Michigan’s state Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill through a couple of days ago that would strip away the immunity that undercover law enforcement receives when engaging in sexual activity with sex workers.
“This is as succinctly written as anyone could make it. It eliminates the opportunity for those in undercover law enforcement to engage in sexual intercourse with someone they’re investigating,” said Sen. Judy Emmons, R-Sheridan, who sponsored the bill. “We have the dubious distinction of being the last state in the nation to have this law in our books.”
”Dubious,” yes. It seems that SB 275 is a pretty simple bill taking away undercover immunity privileges for participating in “sexual penetration.” Michigan Radio spoke with a professor and the director of the Human Trafficking Clinic, Bridgette Carr.
Carr first became aware of the exemption a couple of years ago, when Hawaii was “phasing out their exemption.”
“And a number of folks in the human trafficking community were upset that Michigan retained the exemption,” she said.
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“The reason the law is structured the way it is is because of the way the prostitution laws are written,” she said. “So for law enforcement to have any power to investigate with immunity, they got all the power. And no one thought to go back and carve out a prohibition against sexual intercourse.”
It seems like no-brainer legislation.