Crime hits the I-65 Beltline as police take aim at motels

Photos | Shane Rice

A few weeks ago Frank Gall and his employees at the Edwin Watts Golf shop witnessed a swarm of police cars head toward the Americas Best Value Inn and Suites after a reported shooting in the vicinity. 

“Every single type of police were out there,” he said. “We heard yelling outside. There was a fight in the parking lot.”

Gall, the store manager, said since that raid activity at the hotel has been quiet, but the golf retailer has dealt with issues stemming from the place on the Interstate 65 Beltline for a long time. 

“We’d occasionally see SWAT team members and U.S. Marshals there all day long,” he said. “We’ve had to call the police quite a few times.” 

Crime at various hotels along the beltline has become almost epidemic, with hundreds of calls per year, according to police records. 

The Mobile Police Department received calls for the address of Americas Best Value Inn and Suites a total of 884 times since 2019. Specifically, there were 189 calls from January to July 2021, 407 calls in 2020 and 188 calls in 2019. 

Many of the calls referenced “suspicious” activity, according to records, but some were more serious. Of those 188 calls in 2019, 19 involved theft, 14 involved violence of some kind, 10 involved guns, three involved drugs and two involved a sex offense or rape. 

Of the 407 calls to the hotel’s address in 2020, 32 involved theft or burglary, 29 involved violence of some kind and nine involved weapons. 

The seriousness of the calls appears to have increased a bit in 2021, according to police records. Of the 289 calls in the first seven months of this year, police responded to Americas Best Value Inn and Suites 21 times for a violent crime; 15 times for a burglary, robbery or theft; 10 times for a weapon; and 10 times for drug-related violations. 

A message left at the hotel seeking comment from management was not returned by press time. 

Mobile Executive Director of Public Safety Lawrence Battiste acknowledged areas along the beltline, especially the cheaper, extended-stay motels where rooms can be rented by the week and month, have become a hotspot for crime. Crime, in general, Battiste said, is moving west. 

“For me, there are a couple of things I would attribute it to. First of all, our homeless population creates some vagrancy, where people are just lingering around and usually other bad things tend to follow,” he said. “The interstate is an area where it’s easy to traverse. The other part of it is hotels are target-rich environments for auto burglaries.

“You compile the increase of people in the area, the target-rich environment for the possibility of someone breaking into a vehicle — it’s just a hotspot right now.” 

In addition to an increase in vagrancy in the area and criminal activity at the hotels, Battiste said, being near the interstates makes crimes of opportunity more likely. 

“[There’s an] easier ability to egress or to get away from where you are trying to go,” he said. “Interstates have always posed a problem because someone could be driving through Mobile and decide they want to commit a few burglaries, pull on a few door handles as they’re coming through. It just makes it easier.” 

MPD has, in the past, focused on motels along Government Boulevard and performed what it calls “safety checks” to make sure the establishments are in compliance with municipal code standards. Asked if the police are doing similar checks at the hotels on the beltline, Battiste said “yes” and other operations were in the planning process, earlier this year. 

“What we tried to do was pull up all the precincts together to find out [if] we have any unsolved burglaries there that we can focus on,” he said. “We’ve got an operation going on to try to curtail the activity that’s going on.” 

Battiste declined to go into specifics about future operations in the area, but said MPD would begin to put greater emphasis on the hotels along the beltline. 

“Some of it surrounds homelessness, some of it surrounds drug activity and some of it just involves those who are just there to commit auto burglaries,” he said. “The intent is to try to identify those individuals most likely committing the crime in that area and have an extremely focused approach to getting those people off the streets.” 

Some of the hotels and motels in problem areas hire security firms or off-duty police officers to monitor the premises. However, sometimes those reports aren’t reliable enough for police to get a good sense of what has been happening at a location, Battiste said. 

“When you don’t get the good feedback it’s kind of hard to follow up on incidents that may be occurring on the beltline,” he said. “Some go unreported simply because … the hotels don’t want the bad publicity.” 

At the end of 2020, news of a toddler getting shot at the Red Roof Inn on the beltline opened eyes to the changing dynamics of safety in the area. The victim was 2-year-old Corey Davis, who, according to police at the time, found a loaded gun and accidentally shot himself. The child’s mother and a friend were arrested. 

Other problem areas

The area around InTown Suites also seems to be getting its share of police calls related to crime over the last three years. 

Jason Broussard, owner of Broussard’s Piano Gallery, said he locks the door to his shop adjacent to InTown Suites when instructors are giving lessons inside. 

“I have to lock them in when I leave because nobody feels safe,” he said. 

While the shop has never had issues like vehicle break-ins or burglaries, vagrancy has been a problem. 

“I’ve had a guy come in here, something was off, but he came in four or five times just to play a piano,” Broussard said. “He was armed. People come in and ask to use the phone, internet and the bathroom. They’re always beelining there next to the hotel.” 

MPD has been called to the address associated with InTown Suites 463 times since 2019. That includes 128 calls from January to July 2021, according to police records. Those calls were mostly associated with suspicious activity, but some calls were more serious. 

Just in the first half of this year, police have responded to 32 calls related to violence; most of those calls have been in reference to domestic violence or are listed as “domestic trouble.” MPD has responded to two calls related to burglary, robbery or theft and four calls were drug-related. 

There were a total of 182 calls for service at the address in all of 2020. Like this year, the majority of the calls were not serious, with a number related to “suspicious” activity. However, 21 calls were related to violence; nine calls were related to burglary, robbery or theft; three were related to drugs; and in one case, a dead body was discovered. 

Police responded to 153 calls for service in 2019. Of those, 25 were violent; 11 were related to theft, robbery or burglary; and two were related to weapons. 

A call to InTown Suites was not returned by press time. An email to the corporate offices of InTown Suites was also not returned. 

The address of the former Motel 6, which is now an Econo Lodge, also saw a number of police calls since 2019. In that roughly two-and-a-half-year timeframe, police have responded to that address 598 times. 

The Baymont by Wyndham inn at 930 W. I-65 Service Road S. has had its fair share of calls in the last three years as well, according to police records. MPD has responded to 388 calls for service there since 2019. Like with other areas, calls seem to be increasing at the location from year to year. 

A local number for the Baymont could not be located by press time. 

Battiste said while there is a hotel under construction on the beltline where vagrants occasionally sleep, areas of bigger concern are abandoned businesses on the beltline near Airport Boulevard. 

Mobilians saw with the way the Mobile City Council handled a group of boarding homes on Broad Street that the city does have some legal avenues to pursue a remedy to businesses run by what Battiste describes as “bad actors.” 

In the case of the Broad Street boarding houses, the council held a public hearing and MPD laid out a case for why the business owner needed to be stripped of a city-issued business license. The council revoked the business license, but not before the previous owner sold the homes to a new owner, who has promised city officials they will clean up the problem. 

A similar situation could befall owners of hotels that tend to be a problem in terms of crime, but Battiste said the city is not at that point yet with these businesses.

“We first need to look at what we can do from a law enforcement perspective to provide them relief,” he said. “They might not be bad actors. They may just be the victims of bad people showing up at their place of business.”

It would be wrong for the city to punish a business owner doing his or her best, Battiste said. If any one hotel or motel becomes the main problem as it relates to crime, then that might change.

“Step two would be if their particular business seems to be the focal point of all of the criminal activity then at that point we’ll focus on the business,” Battiste said. “As of right now, I can’t say any one of those hotels is a primary contributor to the bad activity we’re seeing.”

While Battiste was quick to let some owners off the hook initially for the “bad activity” of clientele, he added in a follow-up interview that business owners who were out to make a quick buck and, therefore, were less discerning about clientele could be a reason a once-vibrant area of town with new businesses and hotels is having issues now. 

“When an owner starts not paying attention to who he or she rents to or doesn’t report problems until they’re out of control, it makes it difficult to keep anything to a higher standard,” Battiste said. “Some business owners are trying to make a quick dollar. They’re focused on how many dollars instead of the quality of those dollars.” 

Homelessness

Business owners and managers also described scenes associated with homelessness as being a problem near their buildings. Gall, the Edwin Watts Golf manager, said he and an employee of the shop found an unattended shopping cart full of boxes covered by a blue tarp in the parking lot one morning about two weeks ago. 

The duo eventually found the cart’s owner, a man who was sleeping behind a dumpster in the back of the store next to Americas Best Value Inn and Suites. 

Gall also described a “litter issue” in the parking lot. 

Another shop owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said there were signs of a homeless encampment in a wooded area between the strip center where his business and others are located and the InTown Suites. There are signs, he said, of a water spigot behind his building being used from time to time. 

Housing First CEO Derek Boulware confirmed to Lagniappe that the beltline along I-65 is becoming a refuge for the homeless in Mobile, as the homeless population, in general, moves west. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down available resources for the homeless population, they moved west in search of help and shelter, Boulware said. One example of this is the Ben May Main Branch of the Mobile Public Library, he said. When the inside of the library was closed to the public, those in need moved. 

“There has been an uptick in the area of Interstate 65 and Airport [Boulevard],” Boulware said. “The area has a lot of homeless.” 

Boulware said that count includes the literally homeless and those who are panhandling but have a place to live. 

“Not everyone who holds up a cardboard sign is homeless,” he said. 

Boulware said anywhere with a lot of retail infrastructure can be a target for the homeless, who are looking for food and shelter, and the beltline certainly fits the criteria. 

Housing First has developed a census to help connect the homeless in the area to its services and the services of other nonprofit organizations. Those who are homeless and put into the census are then ranked, according to vulnerability, length of time on the street, disability and whether or not they are with a child, Boulware said. 

“If there are resources available, if there is a program available, we look at the priority list and we refer them to the program,” he said. In 2020, Housing First and its partners were able to provide homes to 466 individuals and families, out of a total census that year of 3,500. 

Boulware said on any given month, the census ranges from 400 to 800 people in Mobile and Baldwin counties.