21 - Report from Chief Hundley regarding police call volume at local hotels in relation to creating a safe zone

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Item No. 21 TO: City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Bob Hundley, Chief of Police SUBJECT: MOTEL ORDINANCE REQUEST DATE: June 15, 2020 BACKGROUND: In 2019, a citizen presented the council with a petition requesting adoption of an ordinance that would help control criminal activities at local hotels and rental properties in the city. An ordinance from the city of Grand Prairie was also presented as an example of what that city and others had put into place for crime control. Council discussed this issue in two meetings in the fall of last year and once in January of this year. STATUS OF ISSUE: At the last report, the city council directed the chief of police to continue enhanced enforcement and a community policing effort and report back at a June City Council Meeting. This report references the calls for service from January 1 through May 31 For the past several months, to say we have not had business as usual would be an understatement. Even though, America's Best Value had 34 calls for service recorded for the location. Patrol officers recorded an additional 12 security checks at the location. Please see the calls for service table included below for all motels in the city. It is my intention to continue work with the management of the hotels and continue the increased police presence. To put these numbers in context, in the same time, one of our major retailers had 242 calls for service; two grocery stores had 69 and 50 calls for service respectively. BUDGET: No impact to the department budget. RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to Staff.