GILROY
– A proposed law that would have helped police more easily track
hotel patrons has been withdrawn from City Council
consideration.
GILROY – A proposed law that would have helped police more easily track hotel patrons has been withdrawn from City Council consideration.
Gilroy police and local hospitality operators have agreed to better and more regularly share information without creating a city law that would have forced hotels and motels to record each guest’s true name, address and either a date of birth or a government-issued identification number.
Police were proposing the ordinance as a proactive step toward “preventing the city from becoming a haven for the transient and unidentified criminal who frequently use hotels as ‘headquarters’ for nefarious activities,” the draft ordinance stated.
However, the proposed law was turning off some local hotel operators. They argued that the law would have put hospitality priorities like guest privacy and prompt check-in in jeopardy, encouraging patrons to stay at hotels in nearby cities without legal intrusions.
“At this point, we’re going to go with the status quo and use old-fashioned communication as our tool,” Gilroy Police Capt. Scott Smithee said.
Smithee said the police department is willing to wait and see how stepped-up communication efforts work in helping them find criminal suspects. If police run into obstacles when requesting information from hotels, Smithee said they could approach City Council again with a proposed ordinance.
Smithee described the police department’s relationship with hospitality operators as very cooperative. And, some local outfits said they would support the police department’s efforts to get the new law adopted since it mirrored their existing information collection procedures.
“When some of the bigger chains came to town, their corporate policies made it difficult for us, and it generated a need for the law,” Smithee said.
However, hospitality outfits both large and small balked at the proposal. Hilton Garden Inn and the Country Rose Inn Bed and Breakfast both publicly and privately expressed concerns over the legislation.
Under the law, police would have had access to the hotel’s registry at any time and would have made it illegal for anyone to impede an officer wanting to see it. It also would have made it illegal for a guest to sign in under any name other than their true name or the name by which they are generally known.
Kirstin Carr, the executive director of the Gilroy Visitors Bureau, brought police and concerned hotel operators together to discuss the matter. Carr said both sides have agreed to meet again if questions about registration policies arise.
“I think both parties found a solution to their concerns without taking such a formalized step,” Carr said.
