Rights groups said police protection for sex workers is inadequate due to police officers' attitudes toward prostitutes. This came after police launched a series of measures to ensure the safety of sex workers.

Chief superintendent of Police Ng Kam-sing told a Legislative Council security panel meeting yesterday that an officer has been assigned in each district since last Thursday to step up communication with sex workers.

Murders of four prostitutes in March have raised alarm about the safety of sex workers . Police have arrested two persons in connection with the killings.

Lam Yee-ling, coordinator of sex workers rights group Zi Teng, said she has received 248 complaints concerning poor treatment from police since March.

Some sex workers complained that police were reluctant to follow up their reports.

Sex workers working in "one-woman brothels" said police officers often ask for contact details of the flat owners when they report any cases to the police, and then the police would ask the owners to terminate the rental contracts, making it impossible for the prostitutes to work there.

Ng explained that "one-woman brothels" are legal but some of the 2,000 prostitutes working in such brothels are controlled by syndicates.

"The objective of the police is to combat syndicates and organized crimes," he said.

But Lam said police do not seem to trust prostitutes when handling their complaints, and the police emergency hotline for sex workers is hardly available. "It seems to me that the police are not very sincere in following up the complaints," she said.

Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women executive director Linda Wong told the panel that the police refused to process rape reports from some sex workers because of career discrimination.

Ng responded that the police cadet school is making a set of teaching materials to alert officers to the appropriate attitude that they should adopt when handling complaints from sex workers.

Social welfare sector legislator Fernando Cheung urged Ng to implement measures to ensure police officers are handling prostitutes' complaints properly.

(HK Edition 05/06/2008 page1)