Whether owners participate in the crime, they bear much of the responsibility for cleaning up the motels, according to police and neighborhood leaders. They're looking the other way. But there's not anyone in the world who doesn't have a feel for that person before they rent that room to them. I understand that sometimes a girl shows up and you don't know that she's a prostitute. They're not naive.
Owners say it's more complicated than that.
They might drive in with a nice car and be nicely dressed. Then in the evening you find out they're something else. Jyotsna Shah, one of the owners of the Econo Lodge near Old Town, has been in the motel business for 17 years in Albuquerque. She said keeping out the problem people isn't as easy as it sounds. Gillani also disagrees that most motel owners are ignoring crime under their noses.