Murders, overdoses, fires,
assaults police records obtained
by 10 news show all of these
criminal activities are taking e
in some of Knoxville's motels.
10 news reporter Caitlin Keenagn
dug into the locations that see
the most criminal activity and t
hotel owners are doing about it.
Inside Knoxville motels,
some people are creating a home
for themselves while others
are just passing through.
You get off the exit and you tun
left at the light and you're th.
Like, I mean it's just easy.
Alexis and Kiefer were the lattr
Motel 6 off Cedar Bluff exit was their
meet up spot at just $60.00 a n.
I mean obviously we say there aa
couple of times so it couldn't e
been that bad but that's not somewhere
I would want to go all the time.
It looked good online,
three star reviews,
but what they didn't know.
Because this motel has the most calls for
service for Knoxville police in the city,
we felt comfortable, like once
we were kind of like in the roo.
But outside of that,
it just was like you had to be e
aware on guard that's not somewe
you want to hang out by yoursel.
Over the past five years,
this Motel 6 had more than
1000 calls for service.
Those calls range from
suspicious people to assaults,
fires and overdoses.
I wouldn't advise any any womany
themselves to, like, stay there,
like, walk around outside.
We requested an interview with Motel 6 over
the phone several times and in person.
They declined to comment.
But it's not the only motel with issues.
Records from Knoxville police
show in the past five years,
Regency Inn on Magnolia got 959 calls.
Super 8 on merchants got 950,
Executive Inn on Chapman Highway got 893,
and value in on Magnolia got 89.
This is obviously not a great
solution or a situation for the
Community who lives around that.
That's not a great situation foe
business itself and that's not a great
situation for us when the police
having to frequently respond toe
same location over and over aga.
We had worked with the KPD and.
Uh, they told us that, hey,
you gotta cut down all these
calls that are coming through.
Harry Patel is the owner of
Executive Inn, now #3 on the li.
But just a few years ago,
it was number one.
So we closed off all the exterior points
where you can come in from outs,
you can just go in from the ins.
So that helped reduce
the traffic and nuisance,
Harry says. They followed
suggestions of Knoxville police.
We give you safety tips,
whether that's putting up a light here,
whether that's installing hedges here,
whether that's putting up a camera here,
it's we, we essentially look ate
design and the layout of your property.
So Harry renovated the property
and put up these gates and came.
Prior to that, we had a lot of guests
that were staying on a weekly b.
I don't know if there was.
In the drugs or whatever else they had,
a lot of people there
coming in off the streets,
visiting their room and leaving.
Executive Inns partnership withD
led to a year over year decrease
in calls since implemented.
The same is true for value in on Magnolia.
We take all the ID's,
we take all the precautions.
Ken T spoke with us over the
phone about his property.
There are handful nuisance still out there.
There are some prostitution prom
out there. But we know those
people and we just don't win th.
We we didn't have that kind
of clients, but where, where,
where are these people to go?
K PD says they don't want the os
to have to turn away clientele.
They just want to find a
mutually beneficial solution.
When you're frequently having to
to the same place over and over again,
that pulls our officers away from doing
some of the other stuff that might be
of the higher public safety priority.
Knowing what you guys know now,
would you stay there again? No, no, no.
We found better options if that time comes
in Knoxville. I'm Caitlin kinha.
Now, if businesses have multiple calls
for service and Knoxville police flagged
them as a potential area of con,
first, KBD will make recommendations for
the business owners to increase safety.
If they don't make the changes,
they can be tagged as a nuisance property.
Then, if nothing is done,
the DA can close that property.