The new law, which passed May 10, 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.”
Some may assume that was already illegal.
But Kansas is one of 33 states where consensual sex between people custody and police isn’t considered a crime under state law.
Democratic Representative Cindy Holscher introduced the new bill, according to [TheKansasCityStar](http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article211018989.html).
She was moved to write the law after learning about Lamonte Murray, a Kansas City, Kansas man released last year after spending 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit.
The investigation into Murray’s case led investigators to multiple affidavit from victims, alleging Kansas City detective [Roger Golubski](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roger-golubski-prosecutor-wants-help-investigating-former-detective-kansas/), who had a decades-long history of coercing sex from women in Kansas City’s black community.
Victims said detective Golubski would threaten to arrest them or their relatives if they didn’t comply with his sexual wishes.
Holscher said her law was also inspired by a case in New York where a teenager was raped by two cops in the back of a van.
Previously, Kansas law 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 explained.
“This helps the person who was detained in their neighborhood or stopped for a ticket, that type of thing.”
Representatives on both sides of the isle said the change was long over due.
“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,” Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, an attorney and member of the Judiciary Committee, said.
Carmichael credited Holscher for uncovering the loophole.
“She called me about this. I said, ‘You mean it’s not against the law?’ She said, ‘No, it’s not,'” Carmichael recalled.
“I checked with the revisor [of statutes] and it was not specifically against the law in Kansas.”
Republican Representative John Whitmer suppored the law, saying getting away with sex on the job would be a lot more difficult for police nowadays, because most cops record stops on body cameras.
“Most officers are great guys and women who are working hard, but there’s always the one,” Whitmer, who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee, said.
