Wheat Ridge officials report big drops in hotel-area crime after licensing program; council agrees to make review schedule less prescriptive

Wheat Ridge city staff and police told City Council Monday that criminal calls and other police activity around hotels near I‑70 and Kipling have fallen substantially since the city adopted a hotel licensing ordinance in 2021, and council agreed by consensus to ask staff to return with nonmandatory language for the ordinance’s reporting requirement.

Deputy City Manager Ali Sheck and the police chief described a steady, multi‑department effort to implement the licensing program and to pair enforcement with human‑services work and outreach. The ordinance (adopted as ordinance 17‑23 in October 2021) requires hotels to hold a license and meet inspection, security-plan and maintenance standards; the code also includes an addendum permitting extended stays only when set standards are met.

“Since we started in 2022, the calls for service and crime numbers have come down,” Police Chief Patrick (referred to in the presentation) said, summarizing the department’s analysis. Chief Patrick said calls for service near hotels are down more than 50 percent compared with early implementation levels and that criminal complaints within a quarter‑mile of the hotel…