Salinas Hotels and Motels Must Make Guest Information Available to Police

Salinas has passed an ordinance requiring hotel and motel operators to to collect personal information of guests, including birthdays and license plate numbers, for police use.

The changes to the hotel code, proposed by Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin in early June, were approved in a June 11 city council meeting.

Police cite prostitution, gangs and drugs—which sometimes proliferate around the city's hotels and motels—as the reason to update the code.

“Improving the Salinas Police Department’s ability to investigate these crimes in local places known for such activity will decrease the community-wide crimes involving lewdness, lasciviousness, and fornication,” according to a police report to the council.

Salinas Police Commander David Crabill says the prior ordinance required hotel operators to make names and addresses available to police, but it was difficult to keep operators accountable for maintaining records. The new rules will compel hotels to keep better track of who they let in and out, and will help ensure that false names aren’t used.  

Hotels will now record the guest’s name, date of birth and address; total number of guests; make, type and license number of the guest’s car if parked at the hotel; date and time of arrival; scheduled date of departure; room number; rate charged and collected; method of payment; and the name of the hotel employee who checked the guest in.

The ordinance requires hotels to keep the records for 90 days after the last entry, then the records are destroyed. The records must be made available to any law enforcement officer for inspection.

At a June 4 meeting Councilwoman Jyl Lutes raised concerns regarding the protection of hotel guest’s personal information. In a council report, police say the ordinance will require security measures to  “protect against accidental or unlawful alteration or loss, or from unauthorized use, disclosure or access of information.”

Police say other cities, including Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, have adopted similar measures in their city codes. The L.A. regulations, which is what Salinas's ordinance was modeled after, were upheld by the Court of Appeals after hotel operators challenged it, a council report says. 

“The Court found the regulations to be constitutional and reasonable,” the report says.

“The whole reason behind this ordinance is to give us an additional tool to combat crime,” Crabill says. “It’s also going to create a much safer environment in our hotels.”

But Councilman Jose Castaneda thinks the ordinance was pushed through too quickly. The Salinas United Business Association, which represents some motel and hotel operators, wasn’t consulted in the decision, he says. Police say another business group, the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, backs the new rules.

Castaneda also wants more protections for guests who may be staying in a motel with sex offenders.

Crabill says sex offenders have nothing to do with the code, which is meant to target other crimes.

Requiring hotel operators to inquire into person’s sex offender status and make it public places an "unreasonable burden" on hotel operators, says a police report to the council. The public can already access that information through the State Attorney General’s website, which contains a listing with photographs of sex offenders and their addresses.

“If we truly wanted to use this as a law enforcement tool I think we came short on that because of what we could have done additionally,” Castaneda says.