AlarmTech Security Services

AlarmTech - Neighborhood Crime Watch - Organize your own

The Law Is On Your Side: Use It!

No one thinks drug dealers are good neighbors -- not the people who live in the neighborhood, not the businesses trying to make a living there, not the children who play in the parks, not the police officers who patrol the area.

Taking back the streets and making them safer takes hard work, trust, and courage from all these people.

The law is on your side, but it works best when everyone with a stake in the neighborhood's health works together. Use partnerships with police, businesses, and local government to drive illegal drugs from your streets.

Getting Organized

Create a group -- call it an advisory commission, task force, neighborhood committee, or partnership. Make sure it includes residents, business owners, law enforcement, housing and other local agencies, religious groups, youth centers, schools, senior citizen centers, public housing managers.

At the first get-together, let everyone talk about their concerns, even if that means criticizing the police and other city services.
Decide on what problems take top priority (for example, other than drugs, these might include vandalism, rape, burglary, auto theft, or prostitution). Discuss realistic solutions, develop specific short- and long-term projects, and take action -- forging bonds among the community partners along the way.
Involve young people -- if they are part of the problem, they've got to be part of the solution.

Look at Laws

Asset forfeiture laws say that authorities can seize assets from convicted drug dealers -- cars, jewelry, cash, real estate, sell them, and use the money to support drug abuse prevention, enforcement, and treatment programs.
Nuisance abatement laws allow individuals and government attorneys to bring suit in civil court against property owners who let drugs be used or kept on their property or permit other nuisances, such as graffiti or excessive noise. Penalties include fines, closing the building, and liens against the property.
Drug-free school zone laws set stiffer penalties for drug offenses committed in areas next to schools. Communities can adapt these laws to expand the drug-free zone idea to parks and other public spaces.
Neighbors can take property owners to small claims court to recover damages inflicted on the neighborhood. When individual residents from the neighborhood all sue the property owners, damages quickly add up and owners clean up their act.
Drug paraphernalia laws prohibit the possession, manufacture, distribution, and advertising of drug paraphernalia.
Anti-loitering ordinances can provide another tool to break up drug markets.
Contact the local district attorney's office for help and information about your area's laws.

Go to the Police

Ask for more police patrols (especially foot patrols) in areas that are known drug markets. Perhaps a mini-station could be opened in your community.
Install a 24-hour telephone line that people can call to report suspicious activity anonymously to law enforcement or public housing security officers. Make sure everyone knows about the line. Use volunteers or an answering machine to take the calls. (This in not a 9-1-1 emergency line.)
Work with a community organization to hand out "hot spot" cards. Residents can anonymously identify drug houses or markets on the cards and turn them in, and the organization then passes the information on to the police.

Go to the Government

Public housing agencies often have tough policies for quickly evicting tenants found with drugs. Make sure they enforce these rules, working in cooperation with other concerned tenants and law enforcement. Some cities' public housing rules evict tenants whose activities or visitors' behavior seriously disrupt other residents' quality of life.
Drug houses are often rundown properties. Ask fire, health, and housing departments to investigate drug houses for code violations and shut down these hazardous properties if possible. Piles of trash, broken windows and doors, rats, and cars that don't run violate most city housing and health codes.
Urge government to tear down abandoned buildings or sell them to civic organizations who can rehabilitate them.
Some cities, with a neighborhood's approval, have put up barriers across intersections that create a maze of dead-end streets and make life very difficult for drug dealers. Check with the government department that handles traffic and roads.
Find out who's responsible for towing abandoned cars in your area. Report the abandoned vehicles in your neighborhoods, and report again and again until action is taken. Young people in the neighborhood can help.
Do the same for broken street lights, graffiti, cracked pavements, and trash removal.

Go to Businesses

Property owners can give police permission to enter private property, such as parking lots or outside stairs, to investigate and possibly arrest loiterers.
Telephone companies can fix pay phones so they can be used only for calls out -- then, drug dealers can't use them to conduct business.
Utility companies can investigate gas and electric connections that drug houses may be using illegally.
Property owners can rewrite their leases to include specific bans on illegal drug activity.