HONOLULU (AP) — A key Hawaii lawmaker considering an anti-prostitution bill says he and Honolulu police have agreed to get rid of a longtime exemption that allowed officers to have sex with prostitutes. 
 
 State Sen. Clayton Hee, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he and police agreed at a meeting Tuesday that the exemption ran contrary to popular opinion. 
 
 Honolulu police said during the meeting that they're OK with making it expressly illegal for officers to have sex with prostitutes, as long as undercover officers can still say they'll have sex so they can make arrests. 
 
 Honolulu police spokeswoman Teresa Bell told The Associated Press that officers have never been allowed to have sex with prostitutes under departmental rules, so making it illegal won't change how officers operate. 
 
 "That's exactly what we wanted and how we've been conducting our investigations — with the verbal offer," Bell said. 
 
 Bell said Hee met with officers who submitted written and oral testimony to a House committee earlier in the legislative session. 
 
 The bill passed the House without a clause that would have made sex with prostitutes illegal for officers after police lobbied to have the language removed, arguing it would inhibit undercover investigations by giving criminals knowledge of what police can and cannot do. 
 
 At a Senate hearing last week, lawmakers and members of the public expressed outrage at the exemption after the AP reported on police officers' lobbying to keep it unchanged. Hee vowed at the hearing to make the practice illegal. 
 
 Hee said the version of the bill that moves through his committee Friday will remove sexual penetration from the police exemption from prostitution laws, leaving police with the ability to solicit sex in the course of an investigation. 
 
 "I suppose that in retrospect the police probably feel somewhat embarrassed about this whole situation," Hee said. "But, thankfully, the issue has been brought to light and the behavior has been addressed. 
 
 "The police support the idea that sexual penetration shall not be an exempt permitted behavior by the police in making arrests on prostitutes," Hee said. "They agree this tool is not an appropriate tool for their toolbox." 
 
 Officers who have sex with prostitutes are subject to internal investigation and, on a case-by-case basis, the possibility of being fired or suspended, Bell said. But Bell said the department did not know of any cases in recent memory in which an officer was disciplined for having sexual contact with a prostitute. 
 
 Bell said the department thought the clause they pushed to be removed from the bill was too vague. 
 
 Hawaii's current anti-prostitution law includes the exemption: "This section shall not apply to any member of a police department, a sheriff, or a law enforcement officer acting in the course and scope of duties." 
 
 The clause that was removed reads, "unless the action includes sexual penetration or sadomasochistic abuse." 
 
 Bell said the department is dedicated to working with integrity, respect and fairness and didn't want the ability to have sex with prostitutes. 
 
 "That's not something that we wanted anyway; that was just there," Bell said. "The only thing that we had a problem with was the verbal part." 
 
 Kathryn Xian, director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said she was surprised police agreed to changing the law. 
 
 "In all of the versions of the language, never did it exclude their ability to solicit verbally," said Xian, a candidate for Congress who drafted the language changing the exemption. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia. Associated Press writer Sam Eifling also contributed to this report. ||||| A key Hawaii lawmaker considering an anti-prostitution bill says he and Honolulu police have agreed to get rid of a longtime exemption that allowed officers to have sex with prostitutes. 
 
 State Sen. Clayton Hee, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he and police agreed at a meeting Tuesday that the exemption ran contrary to popular opinion. 
 
 Honolulu police said during the meeting that they're OK with making it expressly illegal for officers to have sex with prostitutes, as long as undercover officers can still say they'll have sex so they can make arrests. 
 
 Honolulu police spokeswoman Teresa Bell told The Associated Press that officers have never been allowed to have sex with prostitutes under departmental rules, so making it illegal won't change how officers operate. 
 
 "That's exactly what we wanted and how we've been conducting our investigations — with the verbal offer," Bell said. 
 
 Bell said Hee met with officers who submitted written and oral testimony to a House committee earlier in the legislative session. 
 
 The bill passed the House without a clause that would have made sex with prostitutes illegal for officers after police lobbied to have the language removed, arguing it would inhibit undercover investigations by giving criminals knowledge of what police can and cannot do. 
 
 At a Senate hearing last week, lawmakers and members of the public expressed outrage at the exemption after the AP reported on police officers' lobbying to keep it unchanged. Hee vowed at the hearing to make the practice illegal. 
 
 Hee said the version of the bill that moves through his committee Friday will remove sexual penetration from the police exemption from prostitution laws, leaving police with the ability to solicit sex in the course of an investigation. 
 
 "I suppose that in retrospect the police probably feel somewhat embarrassed about this whole situation," Hee said. "But, thankfully, the issue has been brought to light and the behavior has been addressed. 
 
 "The police support the idea that sexual penetration shall not be an exempt permitted behavior by the police in making arrests on prostitutes," Hee said. "They agree this tool is not an appropriate tool for their toolbox." 
 
 Officers who have sex with prostitutes are subject to internal investigation and, on a case-by-case basis, the possibility of being fired or suspended, Bell said. But Bell said the department did not know of any cases in recent memory in which an officer was disciplined for having sexual contact with a prostitute. 
 
 Bell said the department thought the clause they pushed to be removed from the bill was too vague. 
 
 Hawaii's current anti-prostitution law includes the exemption: "This section shall not apply to any member of a police department, a sheriff, or a law enforcement officer acting in the course and scope of duties." 
 
 The clause that was removed reads, "unless the action includes sexual penetration or sadomasochistic abuse." 
 
 Bell said the department is dedicated to working with integrity, respect and fairness and didn't want the ability to have sex with prostitutes. 
 
 "That's not something that we wanted anyway; that was just there," Bell said. "The only thing that we had a problem with was the verbal part." 
 
 Kathryn Xian, director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said she was surprised police agreed to changing the law. 
 
 "In all of the versions of the language, never did it exclude their ability to solicit verbally," said Xian, a candidate for Congress who drafted the language changing the exemption. 
 
 ——— 
 
 Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia. Associated Press writer Sam Eifling also contributed to this report. ||||| HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu police officers have urged lawmakers to keep an exemption in state law that allows undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes during investigations, touching off a heated debate. 
 
 Hawaii state Rep. Karl Rhoads listens during a House floor session at the Capitol in Honolulu on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. As Hawaii lawmakers considered a measure that would crack down on prostitution,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A pedestrian walks in front of a Honolulu Police Department station in Honolulu's tourist area of Waikiki on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. As Hawaii lawmakers considered a measure that would crack down on... (Associated Press) 
 
 Authorities say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Critics, including human trafficking experts and other police, say it's unnecessary and could further victimize sex workers, many of whom have been forced into the trade. 
 
 Police haven't said how often — or even if — they use the provision. And when they asked legislators to preserve it, they made assurances that internal policies and procedures are in place to prevent officers from taking advantage of it. 
 
 But expert Derek Marsh says the exemption is "antiquated at best" and that police can easily do without it. 
 
 "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?" asked Marsh, who trains California police in best practices on human trafficking cases and twice has testified to Congress about the issue. 
 
 A Hawaii bill cracking down on prostitution (HB 1926) was originally written to scrap the sex exemption for officers on duty. It was amended to restore that protection after police testimony. The revised proposal passed the state House and will go before a Senate committee Friday. 
 
 It's not immediately clear whether similar provisions are in place elsewhere as state law or department policy. But advocates were shocked that Hawaii exempts police from its prostitution laws, suggesting it's an invitation for misconduct. 
 
 "Police abuse is part of the life of prostitution," said Melissa Farley, the executive director of the San Francisco-based group Prostitution Research and Education. Farley said that in places without such police protections "women who have escaped prostitution" commonly report being coerced into giving police sexual favors to keep from being arrested. 
 
 The Hawaii bill aims to ratchet up penalties on johns and pimps. Selling sex would remain a petty misdemeanor. 
 
 During recent testimony, Honolulu police said the sex exemption protects investigations and should remain in place. 
 
 "The procedures and conduct of the undercover officers are regulated by department rules, which by nature have to be confidential," Honolulu Police Maj. Jerry Inouye told the House Judiciary Committee. "Because if prostitution suspects, pimps and other people are privy to that information, they're going to know exactly how far the undercover officer can and cannot go." 
 
 Democratic state Rep. Karl Rhoads, the committee chairman, said police testimony convinced him to amend the proposal. 
 
 "It's a really murky area," said Rhoads, who represents a district that includes Honolulu's Chinatown, a longstanding epicenter of street prostitution. "I was reluctant to interfere in something that they face all the time. If they think it's necessary to not have it in the statute, this is one area where I did defer to them and say, 'I hope you're not having sex with prostitutes.'" 
 
 Critics say the police perspective is off base. Lauren Hersh, a former prosecuting attorney who runs the global trafficking program of the women's advocacy group Equality Now, said the risk of re-victimizing a sex worker, who may already have been trafficked, should make sex during an investigation off-limits. 
 
 "I can understand you're in a drug den, and you have a gun to your head and someone says 'snort this,'" Hersh said, acknowledging the gray areas associated with undercover police work. But the sex exemption in Hawaii is "so dissimilar from that circumstance on so many levels." 
 
 There have been instances of police being accused of victimizing sex workers across the nation. In Philadelphia, a former officer is on trial facing charges of raping two prostitutes after forcing them at gunpoint to take narcotics. A former West Sacramento, Calif., officer is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of raping prostitutes in his police cruiser while on patrol. And last year in Massachusetts, a former police officer pleaded guilty to extorting sex from prostitutes he threatened with arrest. 
 
 Rhoads said he knew no reason to suspect Honolulu police are out of line. 
 
 "All allegations of misconduct are investigated and the appropriate disciplinary action taken," said Michelle Yu, Honolulu police spokeswoman, in an email. 
 
 It's not clear, however, what the punishment would be. The disclosure laws for police misconduct in Hawaii make it impossible to know if an on-duty officer had faced discipline or accusations of having sex with a prostitute. 
 
 Officers who investigate prostitution haven't been accused of sexual wrongdoing in recent memory, Yu said. A patrol officer in 2011 was fired after being convicted of sexual assault against a prostitute, she said. 
 
 Skeptics, such as Roger Young, a retired special agent who for more than 20 years worked sex crimes for the FBI from Las Vegas and has trained vice squads around the country, remain unconvinced. 
 
 Young said Thursday, "I don't know of any state or federal law that allows any law enforcement officer undercover to penetrate or do what this law is allowing." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Sam Eifling can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sameifling
– Honolulu police have apparently relented: They have agreed to give up the legal exemption that allows them to have sex with prostitutes. State Sen. Clayton Hee tells the AP that he and police came to a compromise in a meeting yesterday: "Sexual penetration" will be a no-no, but police working undercover will still be able to solicit sex with prostitutes, in order to make arrests. A Honolulu police rep says officers have never had their department's blessing to have sex with prostitutes, and that this whole to-do started because the department was just trying to remove a vague clause from an anti-prostitution bill. "I suppose that in retrospect the police probably feel somewhat embarrassed about this whole situation," Hee said. Hee tells KHON2 that "there are other parts of the exemption that will remain and that includes sexual contact," but that "HPD agrees that the sexual penetration language in the law that they are exempt from should no longer be an exemption for police officers." As to KHON2's assertion that "some people might think sexual contact might include touching some areas of the body that shouldn’t be touched. What would you say to that?” Hee apparently had no reply, with a police official just saying "we have strict policy" that he couldn't go into. And the woman who drafted the initial language change to the exemption expressed surprise: "In all of the versions of the language, never did it exclude their ability to solicit verbally," she notes.