Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation results of Operation Galley, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) intervention that sought to proactively address the problem of drug dealing from hotel rooms by engaging hoteliers as crime control partners with the Queensland Police Service.

Design/methodology/approach: Operation Galley, a randomized control field trial, rank ordered and matched 120 hotels on size, star rating, location and estimated degree of suspicious behaviour. Hotels were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Operation Galley hotels who received a procedurally just letter, followed by a personal visit with detectives; the letter-only hotels who received the procedurally just letter; and the business as usual hotels.

Findings: Using repeated measures ANOVA and general linear models, results of the 12-month trial indicate that the Operation Galley condition led to an increase in police engagement with hoteliers, increasing the recognition, reporting and police enforcement of drug offenders.

Practical implications: The Operation Galley trial demonstrates that the ILP approach helped foster positive engagement between hoteliers and detectives. The approach cultivated hoteliers as crime control partners and thereby increased the flow of human source intelligence, helping police to better target and respond to drug dealing problems in hotel rooms.

Originality/value: Results of the Operation Galley trial demonstrate that hoteliers can be leveraged as crime control partners, providing important human source intelligence about drug dealing and facilitating the capacity of police to better respond to drug problems in hotels.