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Although New York City health officials have given out 192
million free condoms since 2007, health department spokesperson Alexandra
Waldhorn said the city opposes the pending legislation.
Kate Hogan, a prosecutor, said giving up supporting evidence
would be giving pimps and sex traffickers “a lot of leeway we don't want to
give them.”
Surveys of sex workers were done in 2010 and 2011 by the
city and the PROS Network, a coalition of workers and advocates. The network
survey included 35 sex trade workers; of those, 15 said police had taken or
destroyed their condoms with only five arrests. Six said they had sex later,
and only half of them used a condom. Of 63 people in the city survey, 36 said
their condoms were taken and 26 said they were arrested.
Human Rights Watch researchers Kathleen Todrys and Megan
McLemore said preliminary results from their study of sex workers in New York
City and other cities raise similar concerns. McLemore said that after San
Francisco supervisors directed police to stop confiscating condoms in 1996,
officers instead began photographing the condoms to use as evidence.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the
quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make
healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The
Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE
REMAIN STRONG!
