<http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2413356,00.html> L.A. Daily News - News Leaving no room for crime 'Motel Six' squad scans guest activity By Jason Kandel Staff Writer Motel Six, LAPD-style, has made a name for itself by checking out who's checking in. A half-dozen officers assigned to a squad nicknamed Motel Six are credited with the arrests of more than 100 felony and misdemeanor offenders by raiding motels across the San Fernando Valley for the past seven weeks. They've picked up suspected sex offenders, parole violators and fugitives in crime-plagued motels lining Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards and other thoroughfares. The Valley operation has become a model program that Chief William Bratton might expand citywide. "It's much more easy to hide in a motel than in your neighborhood," said Valley Bureau Cmdr. Valentino Paniccia, who handpicked the sergeant and five officers for the team. "Guns, violence, drugs, identity theft, computers -- they get free electricity, a base of operations, concealment, mobility. They can move from day to day." Long considered by police as hotbeds of prostitution, motels offer cheap rent and easy access to freeways, and can become a base of operation for felons to manufacture forged identity cards and carry out big drug deals -- and hide out from the cops. "They're becoming more enterprising, and they're fanning out," said Assistant Chief George Gascon, who oversees department operations. "They're becoming more businesslike." The six-member unit was formed after police noted an increase in violence at local motels, including last year's slaying of Burbank police Officer Matthew Pavekla in a gunbattle in the parking lot of the local Ramada Inn. Just last year, Craigor Lee Smith -- suspected of being the "Yellow Tooth Bandit" who held up dozens of Valley motels -- was fatally shot in a police standoff outside an Encino restaurant. In 2002, police caught a murder suspect who had been living out of his car parked in a lot at a North Hollywood motel. The Motel Six patrol checks parking lots, running license plates through police car computer terminals and getting instantaneous information about the registered owners. They then can check the information against guest registers and knock on doors, often turning up weapons, large amounts of cash, drugs and associatedparaphernalia. "The law allows for us to examine the registers," said Capt. James Miller, head of the Van Nuys Division, who had expressed concern about suspects' privacy rights while the project was still in the planning stages. "Running a license plate to see if it's a stolen vehicle or if there's a warrant has been recognized by the courts for a long time." The Motel Six program dovetails with efforts by the City Attorney's Office to shut down problem motels under the city's nuisance-abatement laws. The city attorney has a dozen open cases involving Valley motels where narcotics and prostitution have been problems. "We're going to be working closely with (the motel squad)," said Deputy City Attorney Colleen Courtney, a neighborhood prosecutor for the West Valley and North Hollywood areas. "We know that city resources are limited. This is an effective approach." Officials with the California Hotel & Motel Association applaud the LAPD's efforts. "Innkeepers should view the police as one of their best friends and resources, always," said Jim Abrams, the executive vice president of association, the nation's largest state lodging industry trade organization with more than 1,750 members. "Innkeepers and the cops need to work together." Mike Barry, the manager at the Mission Hills Inn, also appreciates the efforts of the Motel Six patrol. Earlier this month, the squad raided a room at the motel and arrested Joseph Romagnano, 32, on drug charges. They also seized methamphetamine, marijuana and more than $11,000. "From time to time, we get bad people in here," Barry said. "We try to screen our guests as much as we can, but still they can check in with different IDs. When the police come and take them away, we're really happy." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'