12 - Police Chief Report - Safe Zone at local hoteslItem 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,
and in this instance, in the October through December 2019 time period, there were three calls for
welfare checks involving requests from people trying to locate relatives. The four arrests involved
two found runaways and two for criminal trespass.
I do not think the physical plant of this motel would be an issue for any ordinance inspection, and
a large part of the Grand Prairie ordinance involves property inspections. The city attorney advises
that pursuant to a recent U.S. Supreme Court case while we can require the hotel to identify those
who rent and stay in the rooms, we cannot require the hotel/motel owners to make that information
available to law enforcement without an administrative mechanism for the hotel motel to contest
the request. For all intents and purposes, then, we would still need a search warrant or subpoena
if a hotel/motel owner refuses a law enforcement request for the information. Cash is legal tender
and I don't think the city can dictate to any business as to what form of payment they accept for
services. The hotels that seem to have these call loads are those who take cash only and their
business model is to serve those who need a less expensive place to stay.
To put the issue in context, in 2019, one of our major retailers had 704 calls for service, and two
grocery stores had 177 and 182 calls for service respectively. America's Best had 132, King's Inn
had 97.
BUDGET: No impact to the department budget.
RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction to Staff.