Most people when they arrive at a hotel/motel are thinking about one thing, sleep. There are those of us who would like to know if the police are being informed every time we stay at a hotel.
The truth is many hotel’s make this common practice. I discovered this working for a chain (no names) that had a police report tab in the reports section of the user interface. When I looked at it, I thought it would be about reports filed by staff on incidents with police. A example would be if some one was being too loud and wouldn’t quite down and had to be removed. This was not what I found, to my dismay the reports covered every single person who checked in for that day. The report had their full name and address as well as how they paid.
Some people may find it inconsequential. Those who are outraged by this have good reason. Their rights are being violated. You have a right to buy and sell without the government being informed. The only time this is not the case is when you violated other peoples rights. Now the excuse for this is simple, they need information to find people with warrants. If warrants were only for real crime most people would not care. However many warrants come from fines or other non pressing issues that do not harm the common good. Our common good or welfare is when we all get to have and exercise our rights. Logically the government should protect these rights, not be the violator of them.
What can I do?
The best thing to do: vote with your dollar. Find out which hotels and motels do not share your information with police. If you are really mad and a bit adventurous, you can sue those company’s that practice reporting your information to police. You can also call these company’s and inform them you will not stay if they have a reporting policy. If we want company’s to respect our rights we must demand it. If we remain silent, than they will think we do not care. You can also call your local politicians and demand they change the laws so police don’t have the power to collect this personal information.
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