Merrillville Town Council agreed Tuesday to tackle the number of criminal offenses taking place at some of the lower-priced hotels in town, including two homicides in three weeks, at both the local and corporate level.
"The numbers are staggering. If we get corporate involved, they have a vested interest. It's their name," Town Attorney Joseph Svetanoff told the council.
He also recommended code enforcement and fire inspections be made and any violations written up, and local ordinances be beefed up.
According to a calls for service report prepared by Police Chief Joseph Petruch, police responded to a total of 713 calls at eight hotels in 2017, 398 of which were for criminal offenses. So far this year, police have responded to 86 calls for service at the same eight hotels, 52 of which were for criminal offenses.
Motel 6, in the 8300 block of Louisiana Street, has elicited the most calls every year since 2015, according to the report, and was the scene of a fatal stabbing earlier this month. The motel had 169 calls for service in 2017 and 18 so far this year.
Motel 6 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rodeway Inn, located near 61st Avenue at 6201 Opportunity Lane, is another trouble location with 122 calls for service in 2017 and 10 so far this year, including a shooting death this month.
A manager at Rodeway Inn declined comment Tuesday.
Town Council President Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, said part of the problem is some of these hotels are trying to turn into extended stay properties. The suspect in the Rodeway homicide reportedly had been living at the motel for three months, although he was listed as a Gary resident.
Councilman Jeff Minchuk, D-3rd, a Lake County police detective, said some violent crime offenders are hiding out in Merrillville motels.
"New hotels come in and the older ones can't compete with them. They lower their rates and are taking anyone with cash," Petruch said.
He agreed the town needs to go beyond regional managers to get action from the motels.
"We can't trust local management. They all say the same thing, 'We didn't see or hear anything,'" Petruch said
Svetanoff said he would start with Motel 6. He said the City of Beech Grove took on both the motel chain and a nearby discount store, both of which had become trouble locations.
"They put enough pressure on Motel 6 that they hired an off-duty police officer and did a major renovation. As a result, crime there went way down," Svetanoff said.
He said Beech Grove used its public nuisance and licensing ordinances to enact the change and went to the corporate level.
The Indianapolis Star reported in 2015 that Motel 6 was the first entity cited as a nuisance by Beech Grove.
Svetanoff suggested the corporate offices provide a 30-60-90-day plan or face revocation of their business license.
Hardaway said Svetanoff would begin gathering corporate information and the town's code enforcement officers and the fire inspector would begin doing inspections.
"I think this is a proactive approach. We recognize it's a major problem and we'll fix it," Hardaway said.