ARNOLD (KMOX) - City officials are, for the moment, holding off on plans to shutter the Value Place extended-stay hotel.

Police have been called there 200 times in less than two years.

City Administrator Matt Unrein says he talked with corporate leadership about a string of crimes at their Arnold Commons location, including rapes, child porn, drug overdose deaths and prostitution.

Their solution?

“At their expense, they’re going to hire an off-duty Arnold police officer to be there at the hotel, either in the lobby or at the check-in desk, make his presense known to those persons checking in-and-out of the hotel, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

Unrein hopes that’s enough to keep the criminals away.

He says the hotel also agrees to do comprehensive background checks on customers before confirming their reservations.

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