Milwaukee aldermen allow troubled Diamond Inn Motel to stay open with suspension

Private security officers with military training from a company known as "The Enforcer." New fencing and surveillance cameras. A requirement to pay with credit cards rather than cash. And meetings with other Milwaukee area hotel owners, police and experts to come up with strategies to fight sex trafficking.

Those are some of the steps owners of the Diamond Inn Motel promised to take to reduce human trafficking and drug dealing at their northwest side motel — and prevent city leaders from shutting it down.

"They take their responsibility very seriously," Andrew Arena, an attorney for the motel owners, told members of the Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday.

But Arena later added that the motel's troubles with sex trafficking have been exaggerated and can be fixed quickly.

"This problem isn't as bad as it's been made out to be," Arena said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We believe typically on a weekend night at the Diamond Inn there may be three rooms that are probably being utilized by prostitutes. So when some of the techniques get put into place, I think that will be brought to a stop."

At Tuesday's council meeting, Arena persuaded aldermen to renew the motel's license, reversing a recent committee vote to shut it down.

Council members voted 11-2 to renew the license for the motel at 6222 W. Fond du Lac Ave. But they gave it a 90-day suspension and required owners to hire additional security officers and submit a specific plan to fix its problems. Two members were absent.

The decision came after the Licenses Committee earlier this month voted unanimously against renewing the motel's license. At that committee meeting, several frustrated neighbors testified about witnessing sex acts and drug activity at the property. Milwaukee police officials have also detailed repeated calls to the motel.

Several council members pressed Arena for more specifics at Tuesday's meeting.

"Is there anything the staff is doing to proactively identify this and proactively call the police?" Ald. Nik Kovac asked. "What is your real plan?"

Arena said the owners would install a security gate system and fencing, and hire additional guards. Diamond Inn owners also plan to meet with other area hotel operators, as well as police and members of the Human Trafficking Task Force of Greater Milwaukee, to discuss best practices, he said. And he said they would stop accepting cash payments and more thoroughly screen room renters for sex trafficking involvement.

Ald. Chantia Lewis questioned why he had not yet reached out to members of the human trafficking task force.

And Ald. Mark Borkowski said the owners' plans sounded vague and unrealistic.

"What I'm hearing are a lot of generalities and I'd like to hear some specifics, please," he said.

Borkowski and Ald. Bob Donovan voted against renewing the Diamond Inn's license.

While promising changes, Arena insisted that human trafficking is a complex and highly organized crime.

"It's not as easy to identify a prostitute as one might think," he said. "They'll have somebody else, they'll even have an older woman — who could be in her 60s and appear to be grandmotherly — rent a room. And before you know it, things change."

Arena also warned that if the motel was shut down, the property sitting vacant could lead to worse problems at the site.

Ald. Cavalier Johnson said "exhaustive conversations" with the motel's owners and Arena, along with discussions with the Police Department and activists, helped convince him renewing the license with a suspension was the best decision.

"The general consensus from folks who actually live in the neighborhood, my constituents, is that they don't mind that the establishment is there. Their problem is with how it was being run," Johnson said.