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HONOLULU — Honolulu police officers are urging lawmakers to keep an exemption in state law that lets undercover officers have sex with prostitutes during investigations, but they won’t say how often — or even if — they use the provision.

The idea has shocked advocates and law enforcement experts in the sex trade, who note that many prostitutes have been forced into that line of work.

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“I don’t know of any state or federal law that allows any law enforcement officer undercover to … do what this law is allowing,” said Roger Young, a retired special agent who for more than 20 years worked sex crimes for the FBI from Las Vegas and who has trained vice squads around the country. “Once we agree on the price and the sex act, that’s all that you need. That breaks the law.”

Honolulu police say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Otherwise, they argue, prostitutes will insist on sex to identify undercover officers.