OWNERS OF BARRIO LOGAN MOTEL TO MAKE CHANGES
Site was hotbed of illegal activity, with officers responding to 229 calls
A Barrio Logan motel that city officials called a magnet for crime has agreed to adopt dozens of new business practices aimed at putting an end to the illegal activity, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Between January 2019 and February
2023, police officers received 229 calls for service at the Main Street Motel, the City Attorney’s Office said, including calls about prostitution, loitering, fights and drug overdoses.
More than 30 prostitution-related arrests have been made at the business, according to city authorities. Police had also received numerous complaints of women flagging down vehicles near the motel at all hours — many possessed keys to rooms at the motel, officers found.
The Main Street establishment was also one of the sites targeted during a monthlong investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation in San Diego and National City that resulted in 48 arrests and identification of 16 people believed to have been trafficked, officials said.
For the last eight months, the City Attorney’s Office’s Nuisance Abatement Unit has been working with the motel’s owners and operators to reach an agreement to address the activity.
A San Diego Superior Court judge signed off on the deal earlier this month.
Neither the owners nor the operators could be reached for comment. “This agreement should put an end to the sordid history of human trafficking and exploitation taking place in a neighborhood of families and small businesses,” City Attorney Mara Elliott said in a statement. “My Office does not back down when it comes to protecting the victims of sex trafficking or improving the quality of life for the surrounding community.”
To settle the case and remain in business, the motel owners agreed to implement 36 measures that include hiring security guards, in
stalling a new electronic key card system that monitors guests’ entry and departure, requiring guests to check in with a photo ID, ending a practice that allowed people to rent rooms by the hour and terminating the current motel operators’ lease, city officials said.
When police contacted the motel operators about the ongoing illegal activity in August 2021, the operator told officers he couldn’t prevent criminal activity at the motel because he had no control over guests or visitors, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
The agreement requires the motel owners to install security cameras on the property and provide remote
access to the cameras to the San Diego Police Department 24 hours a day, upon request.
The City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests about where the cameras would be located.
“The San Diego Police Department is committed to holding human traffickers accountable and helping the survivors of this horrible crime,” Lt. Jason Scott of the San Diego Police Department’s Vice unit said in a statement. “We are proud to be partners in abating this nuisance property.”
Additionally, the hotel owners and operators must pay $25,000 to the Police Department to reimburse the city for its investigative costs and $50,000 in civil penalties. Another $325,000 in penalties was stayed pending compliance with the injunction and stipulated judgment terms.
The injunction prohibits the owners and operators from allowing prostitution, lewdness, maintaining a public nuisance or human trafficking at the property. If the activity continues, the motel may be required to close for a year.
The City Attorney’s Office said the motel’s owners “cooperated extensively” during the investigation and took proactive measures to address the issues. The former managers and operators are prohibited from operating the hotel. The owners and the operators were also required to make a $5,500 donation to a nonprofit organization focused on aiding sex trafficking survivors.