I’ve heard that if you ask an undercover officer if they’re a cop, they have to answer honestly. I used to date a girl who worked in a bad part of town, where prostitution was rampant, and she was often approached by men asking her if she was a cop. Someone finally told her that they were hoping to solicit her, but didn’t want to get arrested. So, long story longer, is there any truth to the original sentence or my question?
I’m sure someone with a better cite than Cops will come forth, but for what it’s worth…I’ve seen on-camera undercover officers deny being cops, but the perps still get busted after the buy.
IANAPO, but will an ex-District Attorney do? Undercover Police can lie to you, and it won’t be entrapment (the usual reason for the UL) unless the lie would convince an otherwise law-abiding person to commit a crime. There is no wording or phrase to uncover an undercover P.O. And yes, I had a case on this EXACT issue. You’d think a working girl would know the rules (or at least her lawyer would). Hope this helps?
What’s funny, lucwarm is that the people who are convcerned about this made up rule try to create ways around it. One of their ideas is to grab the cops dick, believing that cops wouldn’t let that happen. The cops, then, simply make an arrest for public lewdness, which in these parts is a more serious offense.
I’m generally not pro law-enforcemet vs. individual rights, but can you imagine how incredibly dangerous an undercover cops job would be if he(she) had to answer honestly! Saying “yes, I am a cop” could easily get him killed in many situations. I do not believe any law-enforcement officer would take the risk of going undercover if that was true.
Interesting idea, lucwarm. IANAP(teehee), but I think the problem they have with that kind of thing is that lots of normal, non-cop, potential johns wouldn’t do it either.
I heard a story, I forget where, that a cop in an unmarked car saw someone he thought might be a prostitute and decided to try to bust her. She asked him if he was a cop, and he said yes just to see what she would do (He didn’t have to say yes). She thought it was a joke and got in the car, undoubtedly kicking herself when he arrested her.
How about this idea for a safe prostitute-john protocol. The prostitute asks the john to expose himself to her right there on the street, and he does so.
Initially, she doesn’t worry about whether or not he’s a cop, because asking someone to expose himself to you is not against the law.
The john can reasonably assume that she’s not a cop because her trying to get him to do something illegal would be entrapment. So he knows it’s safe to drop trou.
Once he has done so, the prostitute can reasonably assume he’s not a cop, since he’s publicly exposed himself.
Then, both confident the other isn’t a cop, they can negotiate sex.
I can think of a couple things which may or may not be problems with this:
Asking you to expose yourself would only be entrapment if they tried to charge you for that, I believe. If they don’t plan to charge you, they can ask you to do it, then ignore it. Then they’ve convinced you they’re not a cop.
I’m not sure if a guy exposing himself to you is a reasonable enough assurance he’s not a cop. Undercover cops may have leeway to act in certain unlawful ways. And even if they don’t, a cop breaking the law in an unrelated way to your offense might just lead to punishment for that cop in addition to your prosecution. I wouldn’t expect that it invalidates the arrest.
It does still have the problem evilyam pointed out: lots of johns wouldn’t do it.
I have no experience with prostitution, but I know many drug dealers will do stuff to make sure you aren’t an undercover cop. The most common is to offer the person a hit on a joint - yes, if they were a cop they could still bust them for possession of the joint, but that’s a far lesser charge than if you try to sell them drugs. Once I had a dealer ask me and a friend to steal a car battery for him. When we agreed to do it and started to leave to go find one, he told us to come back in and brought out the dope.
Mr. Galt: I think you would have better luck reversing the roles. I would think that the average john is probably trying to stay on the down low, and trying to drop trou subtly while sitting in your car may not be all that easy. And then the prospective employee would probably have to climb half in the car to make sure you’re not pulling her chain. A quick flash from the side of the road could probably happen much quicker.
Mangetout has illustrated the problem with all these complex identification strategies. Prostitution is a low margin business (because the pimp takes most of the money.) So a working girl needs to do a lot of volume to make ends meet. If she requires every prospective john to go through these exacting routines, they’re just going to go elsewhere, and she won’t be able to get enough customers.
In my part of the counrty, cops trying to get johns won’t get in the johns car. Thats the tip off that the person is a cop. They ask them to drive around the corner where they get arrested. So, if the person won’t get in the car with a john chances are they are a cop.