WHITE SETTLEMENT, TX (1080 KRLD) - The chief of police in White Settlement has a stark message for operators of nuisance motels: We're not going to take it anymore!
WSPD has created a special task force to crack down on nuisance hotels and motels in the city.
Since January of 2021, a small handful of properties have been the sites of scores of crimes.
"We responded to almost 3,000 calls for service at eight properties," Police Chief Christopher Cook tells KRLD. "That's crazy.
"We got everything from shootings, overdoses, we even had a death at one of the properties a few months ago, fentanyl related," Chief Cook continued.
Hotel-Motel-Apartment Owner Notification.pdfCook says the problems at these hotels are spilling into neighborhoods.
"The quality of life issues, the discarded needles, the trash debris that's being just thrown around at some of these areas," Cook says.
Cook sent the owners of all hotels in the city, imploring them to do their part in cracking down on these problems -- and that starts with abiding by city code, such as not renting rooms by the hour.
"When you rent a room by an hour or a couple hours, you're inviting prostitution, you're inviting illegal drugs, you're inviting all kinds of bad things to happen," says Cook.
The task force involves having extra police officers work special assignments at these properties so that resources aren't pulled from regular patrol duties.
Cook says if he has to get stern with some of these nuisance properties, he will not hesitate to do so.
"Some of our motels are not as cooperative as others, meaning they won't share surveillance video, they won't go by the ordinance," says Cook, "and I hope that they change their mind and they do, because I will tell you, we will file lawsuits against properties that do not comply with the law under nuisance and abatement."
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