This is not an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. The reality is that Hawaiian undercover police officers might be lawfully allowed to have sex with prostitutes.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials, experts, and police officers are split on this issue. The New York Daily News reported that police authorities need legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. These lawbreakers could be pimps, "johns" or clients, prostitutes, and those who solicit sex.

The Bill, HB 1926, was originally written to scrap the sex exemption for officers on duty, but after law enforcement officials testified in favor of the exemption, the bill was then amended to restore it. The revised bill has passed the Hawaii state House, but it has to go before the state Senate committee.

However, during testimony for the bill, some law enforcement officials would not reveal how often they use the exemption, the Times reported. They claimed that by revealing themselves to pimps and prostitutes it would alert the commercial sex workers to how far policemen are and are not allowed to go.

The critics of HB 1926 say it is unnecessary and could further victimize sex workers, many of whom have been forced into the trade. An expert on human trafficking, Derek Marsh calls the exemption antiquated and believes that it in fact traumatizes someone further. It could cause people to trust the police less. Marsh has trained California police in best practices on human trafficking cases.

Melissa Farley, executive director of the San Francisco based Prostitution Research and Education, agrees that in places without such police protection, women who have escaped prostitution commonly report coercion into giving police sexual favors to prevent arrests.

However, Democratic State Representative Karl Rhoads, the committee chairman who amended the bill to restore the exemption, stated that the bill is a "murky area." Rhoads adds that you cannot understand the measures necessary in undercover police work.

Honolulu Police Major Jerry Inouye told the House Judiciary Committee that the procedures and conduct of the undercover officers are regulated by department rules, which by nature have to be confidential, Fox News reported. A Honolulu police spokesperson stated that Vice officers who investigate prostitution have not been accused of sexual wrongdoing in recent memory.

But in 2011, a parole officer was fired because the conviction that they faced was of sexual assault against a prostitute, and in Philadelphia, a former police officer was on trial facing charges of raping two prostitutes after forcing them at gunpoint to take drugs, just to name a couple.

Roger Young, a retired special agent for the FBI who worked 20 years in sex crimes, stated that he is unaware of any state that allows any law enforcement officer who is undercover to do what this law is allowing.

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