Operation Innkeeper

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Operation Innkeeper is a cooperative investigative, enforcement, and community policing effort led by the Henrico County Police Division, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Department of Homeland Security (HSI), other area law enforcement agencies, and the Richmond Retail Merchants Association (RMA). The objective of this operation is to identify persons and organizations actively engaged in criminal activity that negatively impact area hotels. The law enforcement community has long recognized that hotels, motels, and other similar locations of transient lodging are locations uniquely affected by criminal activity. Persons whom reside in transient lodging are easily victimized and are therefore inviting targets for criminals. Transient lodging locations can also be used by criminals as a refuge from law enforcement and as locations from which criminal activity can be conducted. Operation Innkeeper has educated hotel owners and employees on the specific vulnerabilities of hotels and their guests to crime. Lasting relationships between the lodging community and the Henrico County Police Division have been formed, resulting in the improvement of community quality of life and the lowering of overall crime.