Believe it or not, carrying a condom in New York could lead to your arrest. Why? Because it is legal for law enforcement to cite condom possession as evidence that a person engaged in prostitution. Targeting condoms, however, is ineffective at deterring prostitution and threatens public health. The practice also contributes to police discrimination against New York's LGBT community. Thankfully, the city's five District Attorneys can end the policy without having to wait for Albany lawmakers to fix the problem. So it's time to act.
Law enforcement is inadvertently discouraging sex workers from using protection without actually deterring them from engaging in prostitution. Multiple studies have found that sex workers are opting not to carry condoms for fear of being arrested. In addition to the thousands of formal prostitution prosecutions in New York City every year, the NYPD routinely seizes condoms from suspected sex workers without actually making arrests. These efforts at deterrence are not working: in one recent study, 20 percent of local sex workers who reported having their condoms seized said they had unprotected sex mere hours after their run-ins with the police. Every one of those cases represents a potential new infection of a sexually transmitted disease.
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