Massage parlors in Manatee are rubbing officials the wrong way. Changes are coming

There’s a massage parlor problem along the same U.S. 41 corridor that Manatee County officials have been trying to redevelop for years.

Now, the county is looking to partner with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to put more teeth into how rules are enforced at these “sexually oriented businesses.”

According to Sgt. Jason Powell, the agency’s intelligence unit supervisor, simply making arrests isn’t enough.

“These are plain and simple houses of prostitution,” Powell said at Tuesday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting. “We’ve been investigating these places for a long time. It’s very easy to go in there and make arrests but ... if we shut down one place, they’ll just switch out ownership in one day.”

Commissioner Misty Servia, who kickstarted the initial discussion, said she believes these businesses are part of nationwide crime organizations based in New York — a claim Powell stood behind. Bradenton massage parlors have been busted by law enforcement in the past for prostitution, money laundering and other charges.

There are already rules in the county code that these establishments must abide by, but much of that regulation falls under the Code Enforcement department, which is staffed with only 11 officers. That effort could be bolstered by law enforcement resources, Powell explained.

It’s illegal for sexual activity to occur at any sexually oriented business or for an employee who appears semi-nude to intentionally touch a customer or their clothing. Breaking those rules is punishable by a fine of at least $250 and up to 60 days in jail, but getting rid of these massage parlors for good could go a long way toward revitalizing the area, according to Servia.

“These are nuisance businesses. They are not contributing to our quality of life,” said Servia. “In fact, they are taking away from our quality of life and putting up obstacles to redeveloping these corridors that we so desperately want to do.”

Other board members said there was no doubt that some of these businesses engage in illegal activity behind closed doors.

“These massage parlors with one car there at a time and the curtains closed, I’m sure we can all guess what’s going on,” Commissioner Carol Whitmore said.

“We’re naive if we don’t realize what’s going on. This is not something that we’re not aware of,” Commissioner Betsy Benac said. “The question is do we have the tools to stop it?”

Reviews posted by users on Google Maps highlight illicit activity, as well. One user posted a 4-star rating of a massage parlor that gave him a massage that “was a 2, but the happy ending was a 5,” referring to a sex act following a massage.

According to Powell, there at least 12 of these establishments in the county.

It’s an issue that has long plagued Manatee but not cities such as Palmetto and Bradenton. Servia guessed that might be due to their occupational licensing requirement, which prevents those kinds of businesses inside their city limits.

Commissioners voted unanimously to direct the County Attorney’s Office to work with the sheriff’s office to look at how officers may enforce the county’s existing ordinance on sexually oriented businesses.

This story was originally published May 22, 2019 at 4:45 PM.