Guest blog post by Carmelita Cruz, Housing Works Director of NYS Advocacy & Organizing

The Beginnings of Some City Condom Sense

Last week, the New York Police Department took a first step in the right direction and announced they will curtail the long-standing practice of confiscating “condoms as evidence” in prostitution cases.

For most of us, the notion of being forced to choose what to worry about more—HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or getting arrested—is a non-issue. For sex workers, an at-risk population that’s 10 times more likely, worldwide, to be infected with HIV, those competing fears arise daily. Carrying condoms itself is not technically illegal—no matter what the number of condoms is—but for decades, it has been common police practice in New York City and indeed in jurisdictions across New York State to confiscate condoms from people, transgendered women and suspected sex workers especially, and either destroy them or purportedly use them as evidence of that person’s intent to engage in prostitution. (In practice, most prostitution cases get settled via plea agreements and never go to trial, so the use of condoms as evidence tends to be a moot point.)

The results of this practice in New York, as elsewhere, have been predictably paradoxical. The city and state governments, along with community-based groups, have long promoted HIV prevention through condom use as a matter of public health, with a particular focus on targeting high-risk groups like trangendered women and sex workers. The New York City Health Department gives away some 40 million free condoms a year through its NYC Condom Program, and the state runs a similar initiative via the Department of Health’s AIDS Institute.

However, the “condoms as evidence” police practice has flown in the face of the strides made by those public-health efforts. Why? Because when faced with the all-too-real prospect of arrest for carrying condoms, many sex workers carry fewer condoms or opt out altogether and don’t carry them and then engage in unprotected sex. (These trends are well-documented in a disturbing 2012 report by Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with over 200 current and former sex workers in four major U.S. cities including New York. Surveys of sex workers in 2010 and 2011 conducted by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and by the PROS Network, a coalition of workers and advocates, produced similarly distressing data.)

The new policy put forth by NYC Police Commissioner Bratton last Monday limits the circumstances in which police can confiscate condoms to be used as arrest evidence in cases involving prostitution, prostitution in a school zone, and loitering for the purposes of prostitution. This policy revision is an exciting first step in changing the attitudes of law enforcement officials to respect the sexual health rights of New York City residents.

Next Step to an AIDS-Free NY by 2020: Ban the “Condoms as Evidence” Policy Statewide

Housing Works and other HIV/AIDS service providers have been working with both the Department of Health AIDS Institute and Governor Cuomo’s Administration for the past year to create a comprehensive plan to end the AIDS epidemic in New York State by 2020, a commitment that was publicly underscored by New York State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah at a legislative rally in March. Condoms remain one of the most cost-effective tools used to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, as well as unintended pregnancy and STIs. As such, increased and unimpeded condom access for all New Yorkers are an essential component in making this plan a reality.

As a member of the Access to Condoms Coalition, Housing Works has long supported a statewide measure that would ban the use of condoms as evidence in all cases, thereby preventing police from confiscating condoms in all instances.

This new NYPD policy is a great first step in the right direction, but a statewide comprehensive policy is the ultimate goal. No one in New York should ever fear that carrying condoms could lead to their arrest.

How You Can Help

• For more information on Housing Works Access to Condoms advocacy, contact Carmelita Cruz, Housing Works Director of NYS Advocacy & Organizing, at c.cruz1@housingworks.org.

• To find out more about the Access to Condoms Coalition, go to: www.nocondomsasevidence.org.

• Support our advocacy work and donate to Housing Works today!

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