In the park I just purchased, there is an ongoing drug problem, which also leads to breakins of vacant units, where they strip the copper wire out of the unit.
I am installing security camaras, have told the tenants to call the police when they see something happening, but nobody wants to get involved.
What other things can I do to discourage the scum from coming into the park. Once I get the camaras up, I can identify people who have no business in the park, but then what? I mean, I could find their names & get restraining orders and such, but that won’t stop them from coming in the middle of the night.
I’ll shamelessly plagiarize from Frank and Dave here:
Hire an off-duty policeman in a police car to park at the entrance to your park. Have him run the license plates of everyone who drives in. Many of the drug buyers will have warrants for their arrest. The police officer will arrest anyone with a warrant. It’ll probably cost you $35/hr., but after 3 - 4 nights of this, word will get around in the drug community and the drug dealers will pick up and move out of your park.
Send around a flyer to all the residents stating that the park has been selected by the police as a training ground for their drug-sniffing dogs.
And finally, you can non-renew the lease of anyone you suspect of being a drug dealer.
If you do a full criminal screen on every resident (not just the people signs the lease) before leasing that would for sure help not even allow some of them in from the start.
I have found that drug dealers are generally well known by some members of my community and as such rely on those tenants to let me know when dealers are entering the park (even if they are not selling) . Once I find out a dealer is visiting someone in the community I find out their names and serve them with a no trespass notice.
I provide the local police detachment with a copy of the notice so that if someone served enters the park I can immediately call and refer the officer to the records.
I have developed a reputation in the township for having a zero tolerance policy towards drugs and other problem individuals in the park that are not residents.
I also serve the tenant that the dealer was visiting with an eviction warning notice.