Colorado Springs massage parlors face new licensing requirement; constitutional protection argued - Colorado Springs Gazette

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A new Colorado Springs ordinance approved unanimously by the City Council on Tuesday requires massage parlors to get licensed, a move city officials and law enforcement say will help shut down those offering illegal sexual services.

But massage therapists and other business owners said the law could violate a person’s constitutional protection against unreasonable government searches and seizures. They argued it will also place undue burden on massage businesses operating legally in the effort to crack down on those operating illegally.

“This would allow the police and law enforcement to just come into the building, which they wouldn’t have access to do before,” said Rebecca Lambert, a business owner and president of the Colorado chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association. “I realize it saves time and money, but is it the right way … to take away the constitutional rights … that protect us?”

The ordinance will officially go into effect July 1. It requires, on or after Sept. 1, all owners of massage parlors in the city to hold a license for each location where the massage business operates. Licensing requirements also call for contact information for all owners; descriptions of services rendered by the business; leasing information and other operational details; records of massage therapists' licenses to be kept on site; and other requirements.

The licensing fee could be $110 per year, The Gazette previously reported.

Before the ordinance was passed, massage parlors in the city did not have to provide an owner's name or address through the state's business registration process, said Scott Whittington, commander of Colorado Springs Police Department's Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division. That made it difficult for police to identify who was responsible for illegal activities, he said, and officers had to spend hundreds of hours investigating reports of illicit activity.

Massage parlors that don’t get a license could be shut down by local police, according to the ordinance. If they reopened, those responsible could face up to $2,500 in fines and up to 189 days in jail, Whittington previously told the council.

“This should be an issue of raising taxes and actually building cases, going out and getting warrants for the actual illicit sex parlors that are operating as they suspect,” Lambert said Tuesday.

Whittington previously said he estimates there are between 25 to 30 illicit massage parlors operating in Colorado Springs. That’s compared with 1,100 massage therapists in the city, Lambert said.

“To go through 1,100 people to get to these people seems illogical,” she said.

Whittington said police generally will only visit a massage business if there is “some cause to go,” like a complaint or information that illicit acts are happening at the facility. During an inspection, plain-clothes officers will determine whether the parlor has a license from the city to operate, that all massage therapists have a license from the state and that a state ID is associated with the business owner.

If officers want to investigate further, they can determine whether the business has records of its employees, he said. Occasionally, police may request a guided tour of the premises from a massage business employee to determine if there is evidence people are living there permanently, which could be a sign of human trafficking, Whittington said.

“We won’t be barging into rooms when clients are having a session, and we won’t ask for patient information,” he said. “These are not (searches under probable cause) thinking that there’s criminal activity. This is an inspection.”

Businesses with expired licenses or other compliance issues can remedy those with the City Clerk’s Office, and unlicensed businesses could be shut down and possibly ticketed, he said.

Those exempt from the licensing requirement — including self-employed massage therapists who operate out of their home or their clients' homes, and several others — won’t be subject to licensing inspections, Whittington said.

Massage businesses and massage therapists can apply for a lifetime licensing exemption through the city for about $50, said Councilman Dave Donelson, who worked on the ordinance with the police department.

CJ Brazee, a massage therapist and owner of Mountaineer Medical Massage, said Tuesday he was concerned the ordinance, once in effect, would imply all massage therapists are sex workers if they are not licensed by the city or receive an exemption.

“That’s going to be very insulting to all massage therapists that have any kind of legitimate health care work under their belt,” he said.

Brazee also said the licensing requirements could cause business owners to move out of the city or shut down entirely, especially after trying to recover from government-imposed shutdowns during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Having something else that we have to fight on top of that is a negative for our businesses,” he said.

Councilwoman Nancy Henjum said she wants the council to reevaluate how effective the ordinance is and make necessary adjustments after a certain timeframe to be determined by the council.