Before the latest Massage Therapy Act took effect in 2015, the council’s guidelines for denying licensure was summed up in a few terse guidelines, such as outlawing “unprofessional conduct” and “sexually-related crimes.” There were loopholes in the new law, too. The council does not keep data on the number of massage businesses in the state. “The state was handing out certifications like crazy,” Mercado said.Īt one point there were 52 massage parlors in town, most along a half-mile stretch of Sixth Street, just west of Grand Boulevard, Mercado said. Paul Mercado, who was part of the city’s vice squad targeting gambling, narcotics, and prostitution at the time the law was passed. Once SB-731 was enacted, the number of local massage parlors skyrocketed, said Corona police Sgt. Otherwise, they would have had to get permits in each city they were working. The idea was to streamline certifications for therapists working in several cities, council CEO Ahmos Netanel said. That changed with the Massage Therapy Act.įrom 2009-2015, the California Massage Therapy Council was put in charge of issuing voluntary certifications to massage technicians. The latest crackdown is part of a multi-agency effort designed to expose fake masseuses and provide stricter guidelines for the businesses who employ them.īefore 2009, each city was responsible for certifying massage therapists and technicians in its jurisdiction. “A system wasn’t in place to regulate them.” “Lots of illegal businesses we’ve dealt with opened up in the past three to four years,” Musgrave said. Investigations are underway at some of the remaining 10 businesses. 1, 2015, police have shut down 17 massage businesses operating as fronts for prostitution, Corona police Sgt. Rampant prostitution led to the closure of nearly two-thirds of Corona’s massage parlors in the past 13 months, police say.
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