Baltimore Considers Closing Executive Inn After Years of Crime
City police moved to padlock The Executive Inn on Pulaski Highway after an administrative judge recommended closure following years of reported criminal activity. The potential year long shutdown matters to residents because it would use a rarely applied enforcement tool, affect nearby safety conditions, and displace guests and workers in a neighborhood already concerned about public safety.
Police in Baltimore have taken steps that could result in a year long closure of The Executive Inn, a hotel on Pulaski Highway in East Baltimore, after an administrative judge recommended padlocking the property. The decision follows what authorities describe as a long pattern of criminal incidents at the site and a legal threshold that allows law enforcement to seek a padlock hearing when a business has two or more acts of violence on the premises within a two year period.
City officials reported investigators documented 28 incidents related to the hotel over recent years. Those incidents included an attempted murder in February when a victim was stabbed in the neck outside a hotel room, an armed robbery in March in which multiple suspects entered a guest room and robbed a patron at gunpoint, an aggravated assault in which a man was struck with a baseball bat, a suspicious death in May where drugs and paraphernalia were found in a room, a shooting reportedly during a narcotics related encounter, multiple drug and warrant arrests, and recovery of several stolen vehicles from the hotel parking lot.
Baltimore Police leadership has described the padlock process as a legal authority to close a business after offering operators a chance to address safety concerns. Police said the department routinely offers options such as enhanced lighting and 24 hour security as ways to improve conditions before pursuing closure. The process has been used previously for liquor stores and gas stations, but a hotel shutdown would be a new precedent for the city.
Hotel management told investigators they met with police and learned the department was considering padlocking the property and that the hotel had recently hired 24 hour security while arguing that management cannot single handedly change neighborhood conditions. Neighbors in the surrounding blocks said they supported a shutdown, citing long standing worries about crime near the property.
The possible closure raises immediate local questions about where displaced guests and employees would relocate, how police and city agencies will coordinate follow up enforcement, and whether the padlock authority will be used more widely to address persistent public safety problems. A padlock hearing could clarify next steps and set a precedent for how Baltimore balances property rights, community safety, and regulatory enforcement.
