Hong Kong - Prostitute Jo remembers vividly the face of her last client. A stocky round-faced 40-year-old, he seemed nervous and distracted when he arrived at her dingy Kowloon apartment.
The client was no stranger. He had been twice before and she had begun to see him as something of a regular. 'I felt a bit sorry for him,' she said. 'He told me he was a toy salesman and he had told me all about his job and how badly it was going.
'He told me about the toys he sold and just how he wasn't selling enough. He said his boss was unhappy with him. He told me it was all very stressful for him. That's why he was coming to see me - to get away from it all and to release the tension.'
On each of his first two visits, the toy salesman asked for a 90-minute 'massage' and paid her 150 Hong Kong dollars (20 US dollars). The third visit was no different - until the encounter was over and it was time for him to pay.
'Just as he finished getting dressed, there was a ring at the doorbell,' she said, recalling the incident in March. 'He got up and raced across the room and opened the door. A team of policemen poured into the flat and I was arrested.
'As the police came into my flat, the man I thought was my client turned to me and said 'I'm an undercover cop'. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I was shocked and very frightened.'
Jo, 51, pleaded guilty at a court hearing to operating a vice establishment and giving an illegal massage service. She will be sentenced in July and can expect a jail term or heavy fine.
Her experience is far from uncommon in the city of 6.9 million. Every month, police target dozens of an estimated 30 to 40 small-time brothels using the tactic of sending policemen in as paying customers on repeat visits before raiding the premises and arresting sex workers.
Sex workers' support group Zi Teng claims that in one case, a policeman visited the same prostitute every fortnight for two years before arresting her. Police deny the claim, saying operations and closely supervised and stressing officers are only allowed to pay for masturbation, not oral or full sex.
The tactic has been a success, leading to a significant decrease in the number of small-time brothels across the city. But the ethics of allowing police officers to strip off and pay for intimate encounters at taxpayers' expense is being called into question.
'It is an ethical issue,' argued associate professor Simon Young, deputy director of the University of Hong Kong's centre for comparative and public law. 'The police may gain an advantage from engaging in this type of contact. They may achieve more arrests, but at what cost?
'What does it say about the police force? What does it say about the individual officers involved in these operations? What does the police officer say when to his wife when he goes home? There should be certain values that go beyond ones job.'
Young has surveyed forces around the world for their policies. He found the tactics used by Hong Kong police is strictly banned in Canada and Australia and would be illegal in some parts of the US.
Zi Teng spokeswoman Chung Sze Wan said: 'It is ridiculous. The Hong Kong taxpayer is paying for the police to enjoy sex services. It seems that the police officers want to enjoy the services because they go back again and again before making an arrest.'
The potential for police officers to cross the line between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable sexual services when conducting such undercover operations was highlighted by the allegations that arose out of the 2005 suicide of sex worker Li Yuen-yee.
Li killed herself after being arrested and accused of blackmail when she kept a used condom that she claims was worn by an undercover policeman she gave oral sex to. At her inquest last year, her family claimed she had been framed by the police and that officers covered up for each other, accusations the police strongly denied.
Police are to be called to a meeting with legislators and representatives of sex workers to defend the tactic, which has been in use since 1993. They have so far shown little sign of being willing to consider dropping the practice.
Describing why officers needed to pay for sex services, a spokeswoman said officers had to act like ordinary customers, adding that 'a certain degree of body contact is inevitably required.'
Repeat visits were necessary because 'objectives might not be achieved in a single visit,' she said. However, all operations were closely supervised by senior officers who approved any payments for sex services, she said.
She added: 'At a time when the evidence is sufficient to satisfy the objective of the operation, the undercover agent should consider stopping the service without waiting for it to be completed.'
As far as Jo is concerned, the debate is of little consequence. Her thoughts are dominated by how she might stay out of the sex industry which she went into 13 years ago when her husband deserted her, leaving her with two young daughters and his gambling debts.
'It's not an easy life,' she said. 'Some clients release their anger and stress on me. They're rude and impolite. Some of them make unreasonable requests. Once, one of them pushed me around and tried to rape me when he couldn't get what he wanted.'
'I'd like to get away from that life I want to open a pet shop. I already help friends look after stray cats and dogs and I'd like to devote all my time to it if I could.' She added wistfully: 'I love animals. They're so much better than people in many ways.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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