The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously advanced a bill that would provide “Good Samaritan” protections for sex workers who report crimes.
The bill would prevent law enforcement officers from charging crime victims or those who report crimes with prostitution and low level drug possession.
“Part of the idea is to encourage people who might be in vulnerable situations to come forward and not fear that they would be charged with crimes themselves,” Rep. Selene Colburn, P-Burlington, who sponsored the legislation, said.
The bill, H.568, comes after House lawmakers briefly considered decriminalizing prostitution, which is now a misdemeanor crime, last month.
The proposal coming out of House Judiciary would not decriminalize sex work, but it does create a committee to study the state’s laws around prostitution, which haven’t been changed in more than 100 years. That group will make a recommendation about whether to move forward with decriminalization.
Colburn called the bill a “safety provision.” She said that she isn’t proposing the measure because the state has seen a spike in prositution charges. But sex workers face increased risk of being victims of violence or sexual assault, according to Colburn.
Vermont State Police have arrested 16 people on prostitution or solicitation charges since 2014, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Between 2017 and 2019, in other police departments across the state, there were 10 prostitution arrests, according to the Vermont Crime Information Center.
But the VCIC only had data for suspects who were brought into police departments and fingerprinted. It’s possible there were additional arrests.
Colburn also said that police don’t always charge sex workers with prostitution.
They often face drug charges, or are charged with prohibited acts, which includes acts associated with sex work, she said.
The legislation would protect people from being charged with drug crimes or the prohibited acts misdemeanor if they reported crimes.
The measure earned bipartisan support in the judiciary committee on Tuesday.
Rep. Tom Burditt, R-West Rutland, the vice chair of the committee, said he believes that the bill might help more people report crimes, including in human trafficking cases.
“All it does is it allows a person to turn somebody in for a crime without having the worry of being arrested themselves,” he said.
Burditt said while he isn’t currently in favor of decriminalizing prostitution, he supports a study group looking at the state’s prostitution statutes, because they haven’t been updated in a century.
“They’re a hundred years old — they’re antiquated, one way or another,” he said.
In 2013, Vermont enacted a “Good Samaritan” bill aimed at encouraging people to report drug overdoses.
The law prevents people who are overdosing, or calling for help, from being charged with drug possession.
