Paris council gives police chief 90 days to target four problem hotels instead of adopting new ordinance

Paris — The Paris City Council voted on Oct. 14 to direct Police Chief Henley to deploy a 90‑day, focused community‑policing effort at hotels that generate the most calls for service rather than immediately adopt a new hotel/motel ordinance.

The decision followed a public comment by Dina Nicholson, who criticized the chief’s memo and called his performance "inadequate, insubordinate, and very poor," and an extended presentation from Chief Henley explaining his preferred approach. Chief Henley said the department has identified 13 hotels in town and that four have substantially higher-than-average calls for service; he urged the council to let the department try targeted patrols, manager outreach and crime-prevention work for about 90 days before imposing citywide ordinance inspections or fees.

Council members questioned how managers would be held accountable and what would happen if hotels refused to cooperate. One council member asked whether the city had a plan to hold the managers responsible; Henley replied that the effort seeks voluntary compliance but that "if they don't cooperate, then we'll be back" with other options. Council members asked for continued monitoring and agreed to receive a status report at the first council meeting in January.

The chief emphasized that many calls are welfare checks and assaults in addition to drug cases and that some incidents — including an officer‑involved shooting cited by a speaker — would not be solved by ordinance changes alone. He said community policing resources would be assigned to hot spots and that enforcement and investigation remain available for criminal acts.

The council’s direction was not a formal ordinance vote; instead members reached consensus to give the chief 90 days to try the targeted approach and to return with recommendations if the strategy fails. The council noted that if the 90‑day effort does not produce a “remarkable decrease,” it could return with ordinance options that would apply to all hotels.

What happens next: Chief Henley will implement the focused patrols and manager outreach, continue counting calls as a yardstick of problem activity, and report results to the council at the first meeting in January; if voluntary cooperation is not achieved at particular properties, the council said it would consider additional measures.

Provenance: Item introduced at SEG 177; discussion and council direction conclude at SEG 531.