New law: Kansas cops can't have sex during traffic stops

The Wichita Eagle ^ | 05/10/18 | Dion Lefler

[Old Yeller]

A new Kansas law makes it a crime for police to have sex with people they pull over for traffic violations or detain in criminal investigations.

The new law bans sexual relations "during the course of a traffic stop, a custodial interrogation, an interview in connection with an investigation, or while the law enforcement officer has such person detained."

Now, you may be asking, wasn't that illegal already?

Actually, it wasn't.

Kansas was one of 33 states where consensual sex between police and people in their custody wasn't a crime.

That came as a surprise to members of the House Judiciary Committee, who got the new law passed in a bundled bill with several other law-enforcement measures. Gov. Jeff Colyer signed it into law Thursday.

Rep. Cindy Holscher, D-Olathe, introduced the bill.

She said it spun off the case of Lamonte McIntyre, a Kansas City, Kan., man released last year after spending 23 years in prison for a double murder he didn't commit.

The investigation in that case led to multiple affidavits alleging that the detective who made the arrest, Roger Golubski, had a long history of coercing sex from women in Kansas City's black community by threatening to arrest them or their relatives if they didn't comply.

Holscher said she was also moved by a case in New York where a teenager claimed she had been raped by two police officers in the back of their van, but no charges were filed because the officers claimed the sex was consensual and therefore legal.

Kansas law previously said "there shouldn't be sexual relations between police and persons in jail, but it didn't say anything about if they had been stopped on the streets or were in their custody," Holscher said.

"This helps the person who was detained in their neighborhood or stopped for a ticket, that type of thing," she said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle embraced the change, saying it was long overdue.

"Those of us who have been there for a few years thought it was something that had already been taken care of in the law," said Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, an attorney and member of the Judiciary Committee.

He credited Holscher, who took office last year, for bringing a new perspective that uncovered the loophole.

"She called me about this. I said, 'You mean it's not against the law?' She said, 'No, it's not,'" Carmichael said. "I checked with the revisor (of statutes) and it was not specifically against the law in Kansas."

Getting away with sex on the job would be a lot harder for police officers now, because most stops are recorded on body cameras, said Rep. John Whitmer, R-Wichita, and also a member of the Judiciary Committee.

But he said it could happen and it's good to have a law in place if it does.

"Most officers are great guys and women who are working hard, but there's always the one," he said.

[Old Yeller]

MR. LIPPMAN: I'm going to get right to the point. It has come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?

GEORGE: Who said that?

MR. LIPPMAN: She did.

GEORGE: Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frouned upon, you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices and I tell you peope do that all the time.

MR. LIPPMAN: You're fired.

[fso301]

Cutting back on fringe benefits.

[Scrambler Bob]

Well, I guess I’ll have to stop speeding, and come to complete stops at intersections.

Darn.

[Hot Tabasco]

The new law bans sexual relations "during the course of a traffic stop,

Well that's one state I'm not going to apply to for a LEO job..........

[A_Former_Democrat]

There goes my LEO career

[CopperTop]

So in theory, they've removed the option to "talk to the judge" directly. Hehehe. d;^)

Nino fans?

[faithhopecharity]

aw, heck!

the legislature is a bunch of idiot Kill-Joys

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Why even become a cop then!?

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Related...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3654537/posts

[Old Yeller]

Related, yes. But the Seinfeld snippet makes this better.

[blueunicorn6]

Is Jaywalking considered a traffic stop?

[CivilWarBrewing]

[TonyM]

What next, donuts not allowed to be eaten while on duty? This is going to result in a bunch of sexually frustrated fat ugly cops who until now depended on this to keep them from letting stress cause them to beat up and shoot jay walkers.

[BradyLS]

"I'm not sayin' it were right, yeronner. …But I am sayin' it weren't illegal.

[Old Yeller]

This is going to result in a bunch of sexually frustrated fat ugly cops who until now depended on this to keep them from letting stress cause them to beat up and shoot jay walkers.

Or in Kansas, Jayhawkers.

[BobL]

Let’s see: Most cops are men, most people who get pulled over are men. Hmmm, has the ACLU considered the disproportionate effect this law will have on the gay community?

[Bonemaker]

You mean I can't.....

[anton]

No sex during traffic stops?

That’s racist, man.

[Safetgiver]

Is Jaywalking considered a traffic stop?.....Only if the cops are humping you in the middle of the road.

[Balding_Eagle]

The ban is only right.

No fair to have two levels of justice, one for men and and ‘op-out’ option for women.

Women already have an extra advantage to be promoted at work.