How to get rid of neighborhood drug dealers

Question

For the last year or two, cars have been parking in front of my building, leaving tons of cigarettes and glass pipes on the ground. They live in the building across the street, whose landlord doesn't screen tenants. There's no reason for them to be hanging around other than waiting for deals. I've contacted the police about the glass pipe and requested more patrols.

I have been thinking about putting a sign on my building, "This area is under video surveillance", or something like that. I hope they will go away if they think they are being watched.

What do you think?

I have been thinking about putting a sign on my building, "This area is under video surveillance", or something like that.  I hope they will go away if they think they are being watched.

What do you think?

Matthew Paul · Answer

What they did in Curtis Bay in Baltimore . Some citizens got tired of guys coming in looking for hookers and drugs , they started to take pictures of the dealings and prostitution . Ran the tag numbers and sent copies of the pictures and a letter to the wives .

Roy N. · Answer

Amy,

You could go one further and put-up an actual camera.   You can purchase in-expensive {LED} motion sensor floodlights with a built-in security camera (which also followed the motion sensor).  We picked-up several at Costco a couple of years ago for < $100 each ... in the model we have you can connect them to an WiFi network or install a memory card in the fixture which will hold up to a day or so of video.

I would still put up the signs on your property and/or coordinate with the municipality/police/neighbourhood watch to have surveillance signs put up throughout the neighbourhood.

Another approach that we used with a neighbouring non-involved, landlord with a rather rundown property was offer to buy the property.  In our case, he did not sell to us (yet), but he has cleaned-up the property and tenants considerable since we explained why we wanted to purchase his building.

Joel Owens · Answer

This is why I do not buy anything where I can be affected by other landlords anymore.

I have been there and done that.

I only look at larger self enclosed investments where I control the whole look and feel of the place.

Not only do other landlords cause tenant issues they can also cause rent drops. Instead of dumping thousands into their units they just drop the rents as the units deteriorate so they do not have to put a dime into them. Causes tenants to want to leave and rent the nice places but they do not want to pay anything. People not already living on the street with the other 4 units do not want to live there as it looks run down even though your place looks great.

Buying their building sounds good as you can start controlling the tenant base more. I approached the owners of other buildings to buy them out. At the time they didn't want to sell. Years later they approached me wanting to sell but I had already got out of that development already and had no interest.

The security camera probably and lights that light up really bright at night might help to keep them away. One of our tenants we gave them 100 off a month rent just to at night walk around with a bright light and act as a watchman of sorts. The druggies tend to go elsewhere when they can't hide like rats in the dark scurrying about. Sometimes having a fence keeps them away from using your property as a cut through for their activities.

Verna M. · Answer

I had a squatters move into a vacant house and start dealing drugs next door to me, I was finding paraphenila on my property.  The police suggested security cameras. I got DVR system with 4 day/night vision cameras.  It cost about $200 from Amazon.   I did not put up a sign or put the cameras in an obvious  area.

However I did monitor the footage, which can be done on a phone or ipad.  I was able to capture residents of the apartment building across the street dump a couch. I turned the footage over the the building manager,  she took it out of their security deposit. I caught a variety of footage which I turned over to the police. This was a C neighborhood for sure.

It took two long years but the drug dealers eventually got arrested and removed.

And the new owners of the house loved the built in cctv!

Andy Gross · Answer

@Matthew Paul it was called Wigtown John Watch, and they had a running blog of pictures, license plates, etc. Schadenfreude, I suppose.

Be careful, though. You really don't want the drug dealers to know who the squeaky wheel is. I would ask to meet with police somewhere outside of your neighborhood. Cameras are a good idea, but you should pass the information along to the right people, such as the narcotics unit or the drug task force. Patrol officers aren't going to care about someone dealing out of a house. Narcotics cops would love to get good intel without having to do a long-term surveillance.

Also, if you notify the landlord and they fail to take steps to remediate, you may be able to sue them as a nuisance property, depending of course on local laws. The end result can be the property goes into receivership and ends up being sold at auction.

Samantha Hiscock · Answer

I had a similar issue when I purchased a 4 unit and moved into one of the apartments.  I called the police multiple times per day for months. I took videos and wrote down license plates. They got pretty sick of me and stopped showing up. I spoke with the owner of the property and made it clear I wasn't going to tolerate the constant traffic and drug activity.  Eventually I told the cops I would head over there with my pals Smith & Wesson if they weren't going to respond in a timely fashion. The tenants left about a month later because I had hurt their "business" so much. I would imagine threatening to visit drug dealers with a gun is a drastic measure to most, but I was young and foolish and 19 year old thugs didn't scare me too much.

That was 5 years ago and the tenants on the street still know me as "the crazy landlord" and a police presence on the street hasn't been necessary since.

Robert S. · Answer

That sucks :(. One of the reasons I have started to owner finance properties is it improves the neighborhood over time. I used to have rentals with drug problems in the neighborhoods. Now I buy houses for 30-40k and owner finance rather than rent. The occupants care about the houses a lot more. I hope you are able to get rid of the drug dealers!

Richard Constanco · Answer

Amy.....nice ideal but from my experience, they really don't care.  I had something of the same thing you have.  I started to secretly keep a log of "visits" by people ( Tag, time, dates, description of personnel ).  When I went to the police and described what I saw, the cop I spoke to tried to label me as a "racist" til I showed his supervisor my log.  I continued to keep the log but after three months of "no police activity"...BUT LOTS OF DRUG TRAFFIC ACTIVITY, I sent an e-mail to the Chief of police AND the mayor, city manager, and drug enforcement agency.  They got the message and within a month conducted a bust....Cocaine, Schedule I and II drug sales, and 6 lbs of weed!  Contacted the landlord and let him know what happened to his tenants, threatened him with public publication of his name/address/phone # and accusation that he rents to drug sellers.  AS they were being evicted, the dug guy's momma was having to move all the stuff from the home all teh while screaming that her son "Bees a good boy, he do nuffin wrong"

Good luck and be persistent...don't be afraid to keep that log and show it to every swinging cop with some stripe or rank on their collar....AND THEIR BOSSES!!!

How to get rid of neighborhood drug dealers

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