12 - Police Chief Report - Safe Zone at local hotesl

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Item No. 12 TO: City Council Gene Anderson, Interim City Manager FROM: Bob Hundley, Chief of Police SUBJECT: MOTEL ORDINANCE REQUEST DATE: January 7, 2019 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. STATUS OF ISSUE: At that time, the city council directed the chief of police to try enhanced enforcement and a community policing effort for 90 days and report back at the January City Council Meeting. It appears from my research that there are only two motels in the City for which there is any elevated concern about criminal activity, America's Best Value, and Kings Inn. I've met with the management of both motels and found them to be just as concerned about calls for service at their business. America's Best Value seems to be of primary concern to surrounding property owners. That motel has a policy that if a person staying at the motel and is involved in a problem, that person is prohibited from staying there in the future. Of course that doesn't apply to someone who stays in a room with the person who rented it. We did ask them to be more attentive to issues at the motel and to call the police anytime they felt we were needed. We have asked for increased patrols around the hotel and I personally have driven through the parking lot several times and haven't found anything going on. America's Best Value had 3 more calls for service in October through December of 2019 as it did in the same period for 2018.There were also four arrests made at the hotel in the same time period vs. three last year. 2019 Bear in mind that the Department asked the motel to be proactive in calling in suspicious activity. In any event, this increase doesn't really affect the CFS Ratio we talked about in October. Calls for service may involve calls that the hotel has nothing to do with,