Thursday, July 20, 2006

An Auckland, New Zealand policewoman, who has not been named, has been working part-time as a prostitute. Her employer, Auckland City Police, did not know that she had been working as a prostitute for a limited time. She has been able to keep her police job.

Prostitution became legal in New Zealand in 2003.

The police officer was prostituting herself because of financial difficulties. A person working in the Christchurch sex industry said “It’s usually either for debts or drugs.”

She is now undergoing counselling.

The New Zealand Police would not comment on how long she had been acting as a prostitute.

Lyn Provost, Deputy Commissioner, said “the nature of the secondary employment was incompatible with policing and would never have been approved.”

The police say that if a police officer was to seek secondary employment then it must be signed off, this job hadn’t been. It would have been a conflict of interest.

Ron Mark, New Zealand First Party Law and Order spokesman, said “the case is concerning, because while prostitution is legal, it is associated with criminal activity.”

A representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC) said there were law students and doctors who were sex workers.

“NZPC’s philosophy is that we support people that are in that secondary employment … we support them for their sexual health needs or any other needs – emotionally, physically, spiritually – that we can accommodate.” a representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective said.