From http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/19/1mi19vista192137-city...

City Council tightens permit, zoning rules for massage parlors, spas
By Rick Rogers (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. February 19, 2009

VISTA — The City Council agenda item looked pretty tame: Zoning Code Amendment Regarding Commercial Uses.

But what prompted the item – possible prostitution operations and sex trafficking in downtown Vista – was anything but.

Last week the council voted to tighten permit and zoning requirements for certain new businesses, including day spas and massage parlors.

Those two categories have garnered particular attention from the Sheriff's Department.

Undercover sting operations identified a handful of the city's roughly 20 acupuncture/massage parlors and day spa businesses as known or suspected fronts for prostitution, said sheriff's Deputy Jim Smith, a member of the vice squad.

Since late last year, two businesses have closed while four or five others remain under scrutiny, Smith said. He declined to name the businesses involved but said most of Vista's day spas are reputable.

The Sheriff's Department has arrested 11 adults and one juvenile on suspicion of prostitution since 2006, with four of the arrests in 2008, Sheriff's Department crime analyst Kurt Smith said. Figures were not available on arrests occurring in spas or massage parlors.

Jason King of the San Diego County Human Trafficking Task Force said the relatively low number of arrests for prostitution is not likely a measure of its frequency.

“It is very, very difficult to get someone inside those operations,” he said.

The Sheriff's Department is looking into whether some of the massage therapists – 44 are licensed by the city – might be victims of the sex trade.

“My opinion after interviewing these girls (who have been arrested for prostitution) is that a lot of them are trafficking victims,” Smith said.

Smith said the women, often foreign nationals, typically have only photocopies of their immigration papers. They report coming to Vista from the same place in Alhambra after attending the same massage school in Los Angeles County.

Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the county human trafficking task force said sex traffickers often keep original immigration documents as a way of controlling the women.

The regulations approved by the council last week limit the number of massage therapists at day spas to one therapist per acupuncturist. New day spa operators will be required to get a minor-use permit.