Police in Michigan can't legally have sex with prostitutes while on duty anymore

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed legislation Wednesday making it illegal for police to have sex with prostitutes while on duty, MLive reported.

There had been an exemption that blocked prosecution of police in those instances until the Republican governor signed two bills undoing it, the outlet said.

State Rep. Gary Glenn (R) told WWMT-TV in March that "nobody intentionally exempted law enforcement personnel from prosecution for actually engaging in sexual activity in prostitution stings, it was just a general blanket exemption from prosecution from anything they were engaged in."

A Kalamazoo police officer reportedly engaged in oral sex with a suspected prostitute in 2003 during an investigation, MLive said. But police agencies said they haven't used the exemption, the outlet added, and don't train officers in such a way, either.

Glenn — who sponsored one of the bills, MLive said — told WWMT another reason he wanted the measure passed was to prevent people from impersonating police officers while soliciting sex from prostitutes. He added that the new law also would help protect victims of human trafficking, MLive reported.

"Michigan will no longer have the stigma of being the last state in the country that unintentionally exempts police officers who have sex with prostitutes during an investigation from prosecution," Glenn added, the outlet said. "This common sense legislation has received significant bipartisan support because it protects our law enforcement and victims of sex-based crimes."

(H/T: Blue Lives Matter)