Roswell City Council planning halt on licensing to new massage parlors

ROSWELL, Ga. - Roswell City Council are expected to put a 90-day halt to new massage businesses within the city. It comes after several locations were busted for human trafficking earlier this year.

Three individuals were arrested in September for trafficking more than 20 women at spa locations in Roswell, Sandy Springs, and Atlanta.

 Roswell City Council members now say they have discovered ways the locations could stay open.

"When we find out what they're up to and go bust/arrest anybody that's discovered doing illegal behavior, the business license is revoked and then they phone a friend. And the friend may be a cousin or someone else in the same line of business, and they're able to go and open a new business license for the same address doing the same business," Roswell City Councilwoman Lee Hills said.

This 90-day moritorium on licensing new massage parlors in city limits will allow the city to strengthen responsibility on business owners to stop any human trafficking operations.

"We are on our way to being the number one family community in the United States of America, and we intend to start with little, but big, things like this. They seem little because we drive by them all the time. Big, because it impacts a huge slice of humanity here," Hills said.

If approved, the city may begin updates to the ordinance as early as January.

"Number one, it will protect, and it will also make it more easy, for the people doing good business in the city of Roswell to continue doing that [to] protect their reputation and their clients. The other thing it will do, which is ultimately what's provoked this, is to reveal to us the folks who are not running a legitimate business," Hills added.

The items was discussed further during Monday's city council meeting which began at 7 p.m.