This is a really despicable practice, and it's another demonstration of the police attitude that the law only applies to those not in law enforcement. Here's just one example:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021200943.html
Similar to the so-called "professional courtesy", which is just a euphemism for selective application of the law (you want to hear cops get REALLY hysterical, suggest that off-duty cops should get tickets when they break the posted speed limit like all of the rest of us do), cops are now saying that it's ok for them to see a provider, but it's not ok for anyone else. It is simultaneously hilarious and disturbing to hear police chiefs and mayors justify this practice. Supposedly the vice cops don't enjoy sexual contact with providers; of course not, I'm sure they hate every second of it, don't we all?
In a 2000 study Ralph Nader found that "in 1999 at least one of the vice-squad officers in Columbus, Ohio, was regularly having sexual intercourse with prostitutes before arresting them. After receiving negative publicity about that practice, the police division issued new guidelines limiting officers to getting completely naked with prostitutes; touching their thigh, genitals, buttock, pubic region, breast, or other regions to the extent needed 'to obtain the necessary elements of the offense'; being masturbated briefly; and 'momentarily' having sexual intercourse if it's 'in spite of all reasonable efforts of the officer to stop.' (In practice, though, the officers apparently find it necessary to use those tactics only in arresting female - not male - prostitutes.)... Despite the revised guidelines, in 2003 the Columbus Dispatch quoted one court clerk as describing the officers' arrest reports as sometimes being so steamy she 'should have a cigarette after reading it.' The head of the vice squad admitted to the newspaper that 'it appears officers are engaging in sexual contact.'"
I have a suggestion on how to deal with this. These vice agencies apparently love to expose providers and their clients, I say we expose vice cops who have sex with a provider before arresting her. His name will be on the arrest report, his photo should be easily obtained as well. The time has come for this double standard to stop. I'm sick of these cops and government officials sanctimoniously pontificating on how wrong certain behaviors are while they are the largest practitioners of them.