Video: Premier Lounge Gets Business Hours Cut

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – At Tuesday night’s Columbus City Council meeting, councilmen voted to require the Premier Lounge to cut its hours of operation.

The probation comes after a number of incidents at the club.

After a deadly officer involved shooting this past Saturday, the city looked at past disturbances, calls and investigations at the business.

That investigation led to the city to demand a 10 p.m. closing time.

Premier Lounge is the first Columbus business city leaders have required to close its doors early and be put on probation.

“What we do, is make sure they are following that ordinance, or that probation, or whatever that has been imposed on them and we come by and we check at the time they’re suppose to and see that they are following that, and if they’re not following that, then we of course, bring that back to the mayor and council and they can decide whether to do more punishment or to do lessen,” says Assistant Police Chief Fred Shelton.

Shelton says safety and reducing crime are some of the why a business could be put on this restriction.

We tried reaching out to the owners of Premier Lounge by phone, but the number had been disconnected.

We also tried by knocking on these doors, but we got no answer.

City councilmen have considered a similar punishment on other businesses in the past two years, but those establishments voluntarily made changes before the city could act.

“We haven’t had the same type of problems because we haven’t had the same crowd and some of the measures that they have put in place, have helped us with our job to do it better because again, they’re working more closely with us and a lot of the suggestions that they had to make their business better were suggestions that we had for them,” says Shelton.

Some suggestions include security guards, liability insurance, along with surveillance cameras.

“Not only did they install cameras, but we showed them in the areas where the cameras needed to be and they allow us to get the video, so we know where the video is, we know where the cameras are, so if we have an occasion, or a crime, or something, we can know where that video is at and know what was captured.”

Shelton says his experience tells him, an early closing time will most likely lead to fewer crimes and calls officers have to answers at the club.

“Repeated places with larger crowds, that means we’re going to have to put more manpower there. Again, what that does is that takes away the overall protection of the city because if we’ve got officers from different places, they’re not covering their beats, like they should properly be and something could occur us,” says Shelton.

The new operating hours at Premier Lounge went into effect immediately.