Police Are Allegedly Sleeping with Sex Workers Before Arresting Them

Rachel*, 45, an Alaskan sex worker, doesn't remember exactly when she got caught up in an undercover police sting operation. "There was snow on the ground," she remembers with unexpected poetry over the phone.

Getting hold of Rachel for an interview has been difficult. We've arranged a time to speak on the phone a couple of times, but she hasn't picked up until now. It's understandable. Prostitution is illegal in Alaska, as it is across most of the US. As a result, sex workers are cautious by definition—and speaking out publicly about alleged police abuse goes against all of her professional instincts.

When Rachel and I finally speak, her voice is flat as she recounts what happened to her—as if it happened to someone else.

"He seemed like a completely regular customer until afterwards," Rachel says of the police officer. After posting an escort ad online at some point in the winter of 2008, Rachel answered a hotel out-call.

"We had sex to completion," she says softly. "The money was on the table, but I didn't touch it. Afterwards, he kept insisting I take the money. It felt very strange."

That's when the police officer told Rachel he was going to arrest her. "I said, 'But I didn't do anything wrong? What are you going to arrest me for?'" Thinking on her feet, Rachel invented a story. She told him that she was attracted to him and had sex with him for pleasure, not work.

"That's when he looked at me and got this really crazy grin on his face, and he says to me—verbatim—'You're a very wise woman and I'm proud of you.'" Terrified of being arrested, Rachel ran to her car, leaving the money behind. The enormity of the situation only sunk in afterwards.

"I felt violated," she explains, her voice becoming more emotional. "It was a horrible experience. It was like, because he had a badge, it was okay—he could just do it."

"The Anchorage Police Department has a vice unit that investigates several crimes to include prostitution," responds spokesperson Renee Oistad. "While we will not discuss our investigative techniques, it is against APD's policy for any of our sworn police officers to have sex with a prostitute for any reason; this includes sex-related case work."

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