When you check in at Motel 6, your name is sent to the police.

[Binkie The Clown]

Motel 6 giving police names of guests

WARWICK, R.I. — City police have arrested four people staying at the Motel 6 on Jefferson Boulevard as a result of the hotel chain's agreement to provide police with a daily guest list, Mayor Scott Avedisian said Tuesday.

The names of Motel 6 guests, which police then check for outstanding warrants, is one of five steps Motel 6 corporate managers agreed to take in response to a string of high-profile incidents and concerns the establishment was becoming a haven for passing criminals.

The other measures listed in an agreement Motel 6 executives signed Tuesday include raising the minimum age to rent a room from 18 years old to 21, hiring a police detail every night, sharing their national "do not rent list" with police and conducting regular training, including on how to spot human trafficking.

Big brother is watching. Be sure to check behind the mirror in the room for that hidden big brother spy cam.

[Rolando]

1. I don't mind.

When I was a student in Europe in 1954-55 it was standard practice to leave your passport at the front desk of a hotel overnight so that the police could register it. Furthermore, if you rented a room, as I did in Innsbruck, you had to register with the police. I do not mind letting police (except sometimes here in the U.S.) know who I am.

[TheBlackAdder]

41. Bed Bug Registry

http://bedbugregistry.com/hotel/RI/Warwick/Motel-6

[Art_from_Ark]

59. Europe in 1954-55 was a completely different place

The Cold War was ratcheting up, and Austria was in a particularly tight situation as there was a Soviet occupying army in the eastern part of the country.

[hollysmom]

2. this gives me another reason not to stay at a motel 6

apparently they have a reputation for boarding criminals.
of course filth and what ever should be enough.

[hobbit709]

3. Remind me to never stay in a Motel 6.

[MineralMan]

4. Motel 6 is not my choice for a stay, generally.

However, my wife and I stayed in a series of them when we moved from CA to MN in 2004. The reason was that we were driving a moving truck and a car and had two cats along for the ride. All Motel 6 locations allow pets and almost all have parking available for trucks like the 24' ex-UHaul truck I was driving.

Would I be concerned if they gave my name to the police in each place we stayed? Not much. I have no outstanding warrants (have never had any warrant). I found their rooms boring, but they didn't mind our cats staying in the room and I could park the truck that was full of everything we owned in a well-lighted space.

Inexpensive motels have become home to sex traffickers, drug dealers, and other criminal activities. People even cook meth in cheap motels. It's a problem. It really is.

But I don't stay in Motel 6 locations, normally.

[joeybee12]

5. I stay there because they take pets....

Some can be pretty sleazy...although I assume most people are passing through the area.

[damnedifIknow]

64. Exactly why I stayed there

Until now. Not wanted or anything like that but I'd rather keep my name and my body away from the police.

[Politicalboi]

6. Motel 6

We'll turn the law on for ya.

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. +1

Thread is over for me. That was hilarious.

[Ed Suspicious]

29. add1

[Hekate]

47. DUzy

[uponit7771]

51. +1

[Sissyk]

53. Thread win!!

[pinboy3niner]

7. That's why I only stay at Motel 5

[FSogol]

9. I'll wait for Motel 7. All the features of Motel 5 without the high cost of Motel 6.

[jberryhill]

20. I stay in Motel Pi, just to be irrational

[Thav]

21. I was looking for Motel i, but I think I just imagined that it exists.

[jberryhill]

22. You should check out the natural log decor they have at Motel e

[Hekate]

48. DUzy!

[Calista241]

62. What do you get when you take green cheese and divide it's

Circumference by its diameter?

Moon Pi!

[Octafish]

18. I'm still checked into Motel If 6 Was 9.

Came in the front door and when I stepped out again it went to the back.

[diabeticman]

8. This is just sick.

[corkhead]

10. Their catchphrase "We'll keep the light on for ya" takes on new meaning

[Cirque du So-What]

12. Yeah

The blue & red rotating ones.

[derby378]

11. Before you judge, cops busted a child prostitution racket at my local Motel 6

She was a 14-year-old runaway from Houston. Got caught in the clutches of this brother and sister along with a friend of theirs who forced this poor girl into "turning tricks" at the Motel 6. One pimped the girl, the other two served as lookout and muscle. Cops nabbed them all. She probably spent two weeks as a sex slave. God help her.

[Binkie The Clown]

15. It's a two-edged sword, no doubt

On the one hand, we feel very strongly about being spied on, but on the other hand, we want child abuse to be reported, and cops to be filmed. But we don't like it when children are encouraged to turn in their parents for smoking pot, (or for speaking out against Der Fuhrer)

We seem to have a very complex love/hate relationship with surveillance. Everyone would scream about 24/7 video monitoring of every city street, but in cases of police brutality we often wish we had video to settle the his-word-against-mine debates. Wouldn't it have been great to have 24/7 HD video surveillance when Trayvon Martin strolled out to the corner store? Maybe Trayvon would be alive today, and if not, maybe Zimmerman would be in jail right now.

So how do we feel about being watched? To quote a T-shirt I once saw: "I'm confused. Oh, wait. Maybe I'm not."

[AzDar]

25. Huh. I know EXACTLY how I feel about being surveilled: FUCK NO. And if you think video would've

saved/helped Trayvon... I've got some lovely oceanfront property here in AZ to sell ya; see: Garner, Eric (RIP)

[Binkie The Clown]

43. If Zimmerman knew his every move was being watched

you think he would have done what he did?

Given global warming, this might be a good time to invest in AZ beachfront.

[AzDar]

55. Given that Zimmy's been arrested *multiple* times since the murder, whilst the 'whole world' watches

... I don't believe that would've affected that self-righteous vigilante one bit.
Killer's gonna kill. Eric Garner's fully documented homicide is proof of that.

[Binkie The Clown]

58. You could very well be right.

Sadly, it's one of those things we will never know for sure.

[TlalocW]

16. But was the bust made because of what Motel 6 did

Or because the police independently tracked them there?

TlalocW

[Orsino]

13. "We'll leave the light on for them." n/t

[Malraiders]

14. I spent the night in jail for an outstanding warrant for

a person who had the same name as me but was not me.
Cops are not held accountable for doing their job as sloppily as they are able to.

Why should they? They get over-paid either way.

[Omaha Steve]

17. You would not believe the number of police reports I wrote about crime in motel rooms

One of the things about work I don't miss since I retired.

OS

[treestar]

19. They can do it

If they are volunteering that information. They don't have to, either. So they must think it benefits them.

Can't see the police being able to do anything unless they already have a warrant.

[jberryhill]

23. This looks like it was a settlement with one municipality

It's a local news story.

It is very likely that the Motel 6 in that city was going to be prosecuted for whatever their local flavor of "maintaining a nuisance establishment" is called. In Delaware, I believe it is "keeping a disorderly house" or something to that effect. Elsewhere they are called "bawdy houses" or whatever.

In any event, if you run a commercial establishment and there is a longstanding pattern of the same criminal violations being found there over and over again, then there are usually laws that can have the business shut down.

That's what appears to have happened here, and in order to stay open they entered into a settlement agreement.

[treestar]

26. Oh Ok thanks

I love old fashioned legal terminology. A bawdy house, lol.

[jberryhill]

24. In that one town...

The story is a local story.

The choice was to be shut down for violation of ordinances against running a business with habitual crime on the premises.

These types of laws go by various names - "maintaining a nuisance", "operating a bawdy house", and so on.

This appears to have been a settlement agreement between Motel 6 and the City of Warwick, after the motel had racked up violations, but the story is written so poorly it is hard to tell.

[MADem]

28. Reminds me of Europe!

You hand over your passport (they don't keep them anymore--they used to in the old days) and the police come by every day and check the guest list!

Big Brother has been watching for a long, long time.

Go outside. Look around. Odds are good, if you live in an urban area, that you're on camera. If you're in a really dense area, you can watch yourself on the internet!!!!

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/?cam=tsrobo1

[On the Road]

30. As Long as It Is in Writing on the Contract

and is not technically secret, you could argue that it is a legitimate response to their concerns. I would not want to be sharing a floor with people in hiding because of an active warrant. Although it would be better if the police provided a file with active warrants and Motel 6 provided the hits.

[smokey nj]

31. Makes me glad I'm a little bit of a diva when it comes to hotels. That's just too freakin' creepy.

[former9thward]

32. I always stay at Motel 6.

They accept pets and the WiFi is usually free. I have no problem with them reporting names to police. I don't want to be staying at the same place with criminals.

[hobbit709]

34. How do you know you're not one.

All it takes is a name match and they'll come knocking.

[former9thward]

37. I think I would know if I was a criminal or not.

They take a photo copy of my drivers license so even if there were a name match the other information would not match.

[hobbit709]

38. I can guarantee you that doesn't always stop them from taking you downtown before they figure it out

[former9thward]

40. If it happens its a story I can tell the guys at the tavern.

[lame54]

33. "We'll leave the red and blue lights on for ya."

[chalmers]

35. The extra bed in the room is for the bed bugs

true story

[Trillo]

36. Can kill for your president at 18 but can't rent a hotel until 21.

Somebody's been smokin' something not so good.

[jberryhill]

46. I know where they've been smoking it

That rule makes sense. Why disillusion their young constituents who might otherwise find out what their politicians are up to at the Motel 6 down by the pawnshop.

[Vinca]

39. I'd sleep in my car before I'd stay at a Motel 6.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

54. I stayed in one a couple years ago. And you are right.

I think I even said "we would have been better off sleeping in our car"

We were on a drive from back from Phoenix to Chicago. Pueblo Colorado. 30 bucks I said, how bad could it be? I think they stole the pillows and blankets from a budget airline.

[AZ Progressive]

42. I doubt Motel 6 is the only place where they do this

Someone I knew in Texas was apparently wanted for unpaid traffic tickets, and got caught after staying in an Extended Stay since they shared their guest list with the police.

[Binkie The Clown]

45. They do even worse than that at Motel California

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

[olddots]

44. when you check into a Motel 600

you get the same crap but the point is this wholw thing is out of hand .

[Hekate]

49. How very European of them

It's always been that way over there.

[Township75]

50. I wonder how many whining about this have been defenders of the NSA.

and why it is OK in one case and not the other.

[Dawson Leery]

52. "hiring a police detail every night"

Gee, that does not sound at all like extortion. Hire our cops or else. Notice the right wing embraces the true "union" thugs, the police "unions".

[Quantess]

56. This I can actually stand behind.

Don't stay at Motel 6 if you don't like it. I think it's positive.

[nilesobek]

57. I would rather car camp

than go anywhere near a motel 6. When in CA, my son and I received a room to room call in a motel 6 we were staying in. The caller was threatening our lives in extortion for money he wanted placed in the "landomat," (laundry room). I told him to fuck off and I was calling the police, which I never did.

I was really alert after that and wasn't concerned for our lives at all but wanted to figure it out. I barricaded the door and paid attention, went outside to get something from my car, and was followed by the guy who was working with the crooked motel clerk.

They had us clocked for a gay couple, my son and I, and decided we were weak and exploitable.

I'd rather sleep feral anywhere then come near those sleazy motels ever again.

[LeftyMom]

60. The one here has so many cop calls the police set up a small office on the premises.

[jberryhill]

61. Hence the reason for this settlement of a public nuisance charge of some sort

[LeftyMom]

63. The authorities here have seized and shut down motels for "brothel keeping"

It's a real problem, I just don't think a solution that intrudes on the privacy of innocent people is a good solution.

[jberryhill]

67. It's a settlement agreement

Motels in that situation can either have the motel shut down under the relevant public nuisance statute, or they can make a deal. Apparently a solution that shuts down the motel is not a good solution to the people who run this one.

[NaturalHigh]

65. The Tulsa police do this at several "hooker hotels."

I have no idea if those places take cash or make you use a credit card, so who knows if people have to use their real names or not.

[dembotoz]

66. ran into a business man while back. last name Hitler.. bet he would have a fun time at motel 6