On the Game?

NZ policewoman works as call girl (BBC)

A New Zealand policewoman has been allowed to keep her job, despite moonlighting as a prostitute. The Auckland officer, whose name and rank have not been revealed, apparently took up the part-time work due to financial difficulties. A police spokesman said although secondary employment was allowed, prostitution was "inappropriate and incompatible with policing". Prostitution has been legal in New Zealand since 2003. "(Deputy commissioner) Lyn Provost deemed the nature of the secondary employment as incompatible with policing and the officer is receiving counselling," said police spokesman Jon Neilson.

Brief thought on this: Setting aside prudishness for a moment, there is a certain real danger in police officer moonlighting in the utterly legal and in-no-way-seemy sex industry, but I'm a little confused as to how it's different from a police officer working at a bar or as a croupier or at an equally legal race track. If a line of work is legal, don't we have to assume that those who pursue this course of work know what they're doing, that they are cognitive of the risks and can look after their own interests here? I mean, after all, the point of legalizing prostitution is to make it so that sex workers need not worry about being pressured into the game by greedy and violent pimps, nor about being beaten up (or worse) by johns eager to exploit the previously illegal nature of the business to ensure silence.

I'm probably reading too much into this, but I'd be interested to hear what others think.