Residents see uptick in suspicious massage parlors, raising concerns of trafficking in Santa Rosa

Late-night hours, darkened windows, surveillance cameras and a single neon sign saying “open” or “massage.” Within a half-mile of a central Santa Rosa neighborhood, more than a dozen such businesses have appeared, fueling concerns there is more going on behind their bolted doors than meets the eye.

Some are featured on erotic massage review or classified websites, like Rubmaps, Back Page Gals or Escorts Affair. Sexual images of young, airbrushed women appear on those sites with exclamations like, “New beautiful, sexy and lovely Asian girls.”

In general, the number of massage businesses in Santa Rosa has ticked up each year since 2021. Citywide, there were 119 businesses categorized as “massage,” “parlor” or “spa” at the end of 2023, according to city licensing data.

In just the first four months of 2024, at least 97 of these businesses have renewed their license or registered as a massage business for the first time, a city spokesperson said. And it’s a trend expected to continue.

Kristina Sunderlage has long noticed massage businesses with hidden entrances and neon signs, but she said there’s been a spike in and around her Midtown neighborhood in the past eight months.

“When I started noticing those other three near Talbot Avenue then I started noticing all of these others that I had never seen before,” she said.

She has identified at least a dozen within a couple miles of her home — at least 10 along just a 3/4-mile stretch of Fourth Street.

They’ve caught the attention of law enforcement, as well.

“The reality is most massage establishments are law-abiding businesses,” Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan said.

“We certainly have strong suspicions regarding commercial sex trafficking at some of the massage establishments in the city of Santa Rosa, but additional investigative steps must be taken before we can take enforcement action.”

Neighbors have provided police anecdotal examples of suspicious activity, he said, “but it takes much more investigative work to prove criminal activity beyond a reasonable doubt for court purposes.”

Concerned residents have so far held at least two meetings alongside massage professionals, experts and law enforcement. There is a potential, they say, that some of the businesses could be fronts for sex and labor trafficking.

The topic will be the focus of a public safety subcommittee meeting Tuesday.

Community concerns

Annette Cooper, a real estate agent with Santa Rosa’s Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc., said she has seen more requests in the last year from people looking to open massage businesses than ever before.

“In Santa Rosa you can put them anywhere — it doesn’t have to just be areas with businesses,” she said.

“You can open this kind of business with very little capital.”

Kurtis Bennett, 56, saw places with signs offering massages popping up in his neighborhood.

“The businesses may be legitimate, I don’t know,” he said. “But, just as an average Joe walking down the street, it would strike me that the number of businesses is greater than the demand for legitimate massage.

“So, what else is going on?”

The question prompted him to reach out to Verity, Sonoma County’s only rape crisis and healing center, and the California Massage Therapy Council, or CAMTC, a nonprofit that provides certification for massage professionals. He also organized a community meeting Feb. 14 at the Sonoma County Central Library in Santa Rosa after hearing from many other community members who had noticed what he had been seeing.

On the night of Valentine’s Day, more than 50 people attended, including Cregan, Santa Rosa Vice Mayor Mark Stapp and Ahmos Netanel, CEO of California Massage Therapy Council, who spoke for most of the gathering.

Netanel said he had flown from Los Angeles to be there partially because of the large amount of possible illicit massage businesses in the area.

“We believe that between 30 to 40 illicit massage businesses (are) in Santa Rosa,” he told the crowd, based on postings from an erotic massage review website. “For the size of this city, it’s significant.”

Throughout the meeting, people discussed their interactions with these businesses. One man living near possible illicit businesses said someone mistook his house for a nearby business, knocked on his door and requested a massage.

In another instance, a woman who said she lives between two businesses — three blocks to the left and three to the right — said she was afraid to let her teenage daughter walk in the area.

The group delved into potential solutions, emphasizing the need for a multifaceted approach that targets any lawbreaking operation’s profitability.

Netanel said it will be important for the city to update its ordinance regarding massage therapy businesses.

At a separate meeting in March, about 30 massage therapists came to the same conclusion.

Red flags

The issue has long been on the minds of leaders at Verity, whose concerns about local human trafficking have grown as massage businesses have proliferated.

Consensual and fully compensated acts occurring in these businesses would be considered sex work, but Lisa Diaz-McQuaid, Verity’s lead human trafficking caseworker, said she and her team are more concerned if the workers in these businesses, likely women, are being forced or coerced into engaging in sex acts.

Verity leaders began their own outreach into over 40 massage businesses at the top of the year, providing educational material on social services, while also looking out for warning signs of something amiss.

What stood out in some of Verity’s visits were bolted doors, cameras outside and businesses in homes, which could suggest workers don’t leave. Another sign that caught Diaz-McQuaid’s attention were the “numerous spots that we went to that had an ATM right there in the corner,” she said.

And Diaz-McQuaid and her team could easily distinguish between suspicious and legitimate operations.

Susan Kirk, owner of Village Therapeutics in Montgomery Village and a massage therapist for 28 years, noted that her business provides privacy for clients during their appointments.

“Of course the doors are closed,” she said, but “when we’re open, we’re open. The (front) door is open, the curtains are open, so people can come into the waiting room, and it’s bright.”

Faced with tight security and locked entrances, Verity had trouble making headway in reaching potential trafficking victims at suspect businesses.

Their visits made it clear they’d have to turn to local law enforcement for help.

“It's very tricky to go in there and outreach … with delays with the language barrier and a resistance that we get when we enter those places,” Diaz-McQuaid said. “We have to be very creative … The whole situation is very different from your average trafficking situation.”

Verity, the Santa Rosa Police Department and Santa Rosa Code Enforcement began a partnership in mid-February. Cregan said the department’s work is not focused on arresting people who may be performing sexual acts because it’s likely they are being trafficked. He instead is focused on the traffickers running illicit businesses and the customers that frequent them.

As part of an early action, the three agencies pulled together a list of nine businesses Code Enforcement had received complaints about and visited them to check for city ordinance violations.

It’s unlikely businesses that comply with city regulations are conducting illicit activity, Santa Rosa Police Department Sgt. Hector De Leon said.

He noted it’s just a first step to zero in on possible trafficking.

“Without doing undercover operations, it’s hard to put those pieces (together),” he said.

Code Enforcement gave each of the nine businesses official warnings for various violations of zoning or building rules.

There are currently five open cases, according to public records, as well as seven from 2023 and two from 2022.

New regulations

The primary regulations in place, as set forth by Code Enforcement, require that each employee in a business categorized as a “massage,” “parlor” or “spa” must have a certificate issued through the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC).

In Santa Rosa, it is a misdemeanor for an establishment to hire employees without requiring them to obtain the certificate before providing services. All certified therapists are listed in the CAMTC’s website.

The physical businesses are also required to have the proper zoning clearance to operate.

These are regulations that will be strengthened in the coming weeks, De Leon said. Next week’s meeting will kick off that process.

Santa Rosa has been working with CAMTC to review its current ordinance, which dates back to 2010, a time when local jurisdictions had less authority to regulate the industry, according to the organization.

In an analysis sent to the city in February, CAMTC, which offers advice to cities and counties updating their regulations, recommended Santa Rosa replace rather than amend its ordinance. They highlighted missing provisions to define acceptable advertising and hours of operation, and requiring background checks of noncertified owners, among other suggestions.

The council suggested looking to newer ordinances like Milpitas’ 2019 rules and Benicia’s from 2020 that it characterized “as comprehensive without being onerous to the massage profession.”

Benicia’s ordinance bars massage businesses from posting sexually suggestive advertising related to services, for instance. It requires clients’ genitals be fully covered at all times during a massage and mandates that reception area windows be unblocked, with entryways unlocked during business hours.

However, even with gold standard regulations, the CAMTC analysis said, “an ordinance is only as good as the ongoing commitment to enforce and resources to do so.”

During the public safety subcommittee meeting next week, police and code enforcement officials will present about their role in overseeing massage establishments and enforcing related laws and ordinances, talk about next steps and discuss the ordinance itself, including areas that may be improved, Cregan said.

“This is going to take an investment of city and community resources, but it’s an important task for us to all address together,” he said.

Bennett will attend the public safety subcommittee meeting at 9 a.m. in the City Council chambers at 100 Santa Rosa Ave. He sees his role not as an expert but as the person who gathered people and now has to hold the “powers that be” accountable.

“I am optimistic that good things are going to happen, but we will have to see,” he said. “Let’s hope that it gains traction and gets done quickly.”

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @madi.smals.

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.

You can reach “In Your Corner” Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.