Weak fluorescent lights cast a sickly pall through the cheap motel room on Harbor Boulevard, where one undercover police officer shimmied into skin-tight leggings and another into stiletto heels. Both beds in room 320 were shoved against a wall to accommodate another dozen police officers, prosecutors and news types assembled for the sting. Requisite jokes were cracked about the quilted bedspreads – sit at your own risk – but a pair of heavy handcuffs on the desk belied any frivolity. Out on Harbor, an undercover Santa Ana police officer strutted in cheetah print and bed slippers. A fluorescent pink-orange brassiere...