So this character I'm working on she's a detective and something of her department's golden girl. But she has herself a secret that she's an ex prostitute and at one point her ex pimp gets busted and he outs her. I'm just curious would this affect her negatively?
Yeah, she'd be in trouble. Cops (at least the ones I know) have to spill their guts about everything they've ever done before they're accepted. So she would have had to have lied during her application process. Not sure what the consequences of that would be, but I imagine they'd be bad. The press would have a field day, as the cliche goes. (I guess field days are exciting, spectacular events for those who participate in them)
This. She would likely, at the very least, be placed on unpaid leave while they decide what to do with her next. My bet is that they would remove her from the workforce because of her lying about a key part of her life and then the bad publicity that would come when it's revealed.
She could always deny it. As far as being 'in trouble', it really depends on her, her career so far, who knows, if public knows, etc. Near where I live, in Richmond, Ca, there was a big scandal a few years ago that is still playing out. A bunch (like, A LOT) of cops slept with and kept from being arrested an underage prostitute. Very interesting case that is still playing out through multiple agencies. Like a lot of other things- the cops that are up to lose their jobs- a small portion said 'I'm guilty', a portion said 'I'm not guily and all you have is hearsay', a portion fought/are fighting back. That middle group is still on the job for the most part. Always remember the most important part- it is a union job. My guess is she would have to have a number of blemishes on her record, a public outcry, and an outcry from other cops there for anything to even start to happen. The reality- she would end up quitting because she would never stop catching hell from other cops she works with. They would constantly proposition her, nominate her for vice work, find images of her online and print them with messed up sayings on them, and all the other bad things self righteous people like to do to others.
If she was never convicted, I suspect it would blow over after some embarrassing moments. The police union would fight any action taken against any officer without legal grounds. If she had a conviction on record it's hard to see how that was missed in the hiring process. But if it were then likely she would have had to lie on hiring forms and that could be an issue.
I tend to agree - if he's no proof she'd just accuse him of lying and the whole thing would go away (who's going to believe a pimp's word against a cop's), if he has incontrovertible proof like previous conviction how was it missed in the vetting before she was hired ... checking criminal records is pretty much police hiring 101
Okay thanks. I should add she was a forced into prostitution as a teen. Essentially it's known she comes from a bad environment and she makes no secret about that when her and her partner are out at one point she even says "I'm from this neighborhood it's only gotten worse." for her the secret was more like one of those things that was kind of a given like best example if your a cop and you've worked the area she's from it's kind of a given she's got baggage. It's not that she kept it a secret so much as when asked she's say something like "I'd rather not talk about it those growing up in that area isn't exactly something I care to reminisce about."
thinking about it may be she was in a porn flick back in the day and the pimp has the footage - something like that .... it'd still be career ending though
What if she disclosed it during the hiring process, but her supervisors kept it quiet? The pimp could could still out her, but I’d be a social problem rather than a career problem, maybe?
I think that if you're going for 100% realism, it would be the death knell for her career. However comma, there's a whole lot of successful fiction, some of it even good, that focuses on characters who would never, ever be allowed to stay in their jobs. Greg House, drug-addicted doctor. Corporal Wojtek of the Polish Army, who just so happened to be a bear. Martin Riggs, psycho cop. Curtis LeMay, bomb-addicted general. All of those characters* have crucial flaws that would undoubtedly end up with security showing them the door quite early in their stories, but if the story is well written, the audience will go with it and let their flaws help drive their stories. *some of these really happened
Depends where you are. In most places the selection process is centralised and fairly anonymous. They'd just bin your application.
