YNOT EUROPE – Instead of clamping down on the world’s oldest profession, Swiss officials are planning to erect privacy barriers in Zurich in order to allow prostitutes and their clients to conduct business without disturbing the neighbors.

Police Chief Daniel Leupi proposed the idea based on a system already in use in Essen and Cologne in Germany. There, officials have built a series of “sex boxes” that allow Johns to drive inside a three-sided enclosure composed of tall, green panels that obscure antics from passersby. Leupi said the solution would address the “thousands of complaints” his office has received from residents who live near Zurich’s thriving red light district.

“They get up to all sorts in broad daylight, and we’re sick to death of looking at it,” one complaint noted.

According to police spokesman Reto Casanova, “We can’t get rid of prostitution, so [we] have to learn how to control it.”