The Powell Operations Committee met on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 6:30 PM in Council Chambers to continue discussions on regulating massage establishments. The meeting featured presentations from Police Chief Ron Sallows, Detective Sergeant Ryan Pentz, and Investigator Aaron Dennis of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, focusing on human trafficking risks and potential municipal legislation.
Good evening. We'll call to a session tonight's operation committee meeting for Tuesday, July 21st. Elaine, would you please call the role? Thank you. Leaf Carlson. Carlos Crawford. Here. Matthew Harvey. Here. David Lester. Here. Great. First item on our agenda is the approval of minutes. It was included in your packet. Does anyone have any revisions to make? Seeing none, can we vote to approve? Motion. All in favor? All right. Very good. Today's business. Andy, I'll hand it over to you. Thank you, Chairman. As part of our continued discussion with the massage parlors within the community, turn it over to Chief Sallows. We had a brief and concise review of some of the activities that happened in our last operations committee. We had asked the committee to consider giving us a little bit more time to put together more thorough and comprehensive examination of conditions and opportunities to a bait. So with that, I'll turn it over to Chief and he'll make some introductions and we'll get into a significant discussion that we weren't able to have last meeting. Good evening, Chairman Carlson and members of the operations committee. Thank you for the opportunity to uh provide an overview of the challenges associated with massage businesses and to introduce today's speakers who bring significant experience and expertise in the area of human trafficking, criminal investigations, and the regulation and oversight of massage establishments. The purpose of today's discussion is not to suggest that massage businesses or the individuals who work in them are inherently associated with criminal activity. The vast majority are legitimate businesses and professionals who provide lawful and valuable services to our community. However, law enforcement experiences have demonstrated that certain massage establishments can and in some circumstances be exploited for illegal activities, including commercial sex, human trafficking, labor exploitation, and other criminal conduct. These issues can be particularly challenging for local governments and law enforcement agencies. Existing laws and regulations may not always provide sufficient tools to identify the problematic businesses, distinguish legitimate operations from businesses being used for criminal purposes. Today's discussion is intended to provide the committee with information and a perspective to assist in that conversation. Our speakers have direct experience investigating human trafficking investigations and related criminal activity, as well as identifying patterns of uh in indicators that may be present in businesses where that are using the legal purposes. May be appropriate. Any discussion of the potential legislation should be carefully balanced to protect to protect legitimate businesses, avoid unnecessary burdens, respect individual rights, and provide effective tools to address businesses that are being used to facilitate criminal activity. With that said, I'd like to introduce today's speakers. I'll first uh give you some background on Ryan. Ryan began his law enforcement career with the City of Powell Police Department in 2000. He began began as a patrol officer. In 2012, he was assigned to our detective bureau where he has served since. In January of 2025, he was promoted to the rank of budget and currently oversees our detective operations. Throughout his career, he's been recognized for his dedication to law enforcement and the community. He was twice received top cop of Delaware County, an award from the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office. He has received two proclamations from City Council for his work, and he's also been named Officer of the Year twice. He has served for more than 10 years as a member of the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force. In 2015, he worked collaboratively with the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission on a business in Powell, Worthington, and Hilliard, and expertise that can uh and experience that contributed to the continued professional cooperation in addressing human trafficking and related criminal activity. Next is Aaron Dennis.