'Motel Six' squad scans guest activity

[R. A. Hettinga]

<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."
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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