Pittsburgh councilman targets massage parlors

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields is introducing a bill to license massage parlor employees in an effort to prevent sex trafficking by women he says are “hidden away right under our noses.”

Shields talked to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in advance of a news conference later today at which he’ll discuss the bill.

Shields is working with the Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition that is comprised of Pittsburgh university students.

The group says it has identified 15 massage parlors in the city and seven more in the suburbs that it believes are fronts for prostitution and, possibly, trafficking in young Asian women forced to have sex.

City police have not commented on the bill.