Is That A Drug House?

If we are going to stop crime and drugs from taking over our neighborhoods, we must all work together as a team. Without your help and assistance, local law enforcement officers face many restrictions. Your involvement is the key to stopping crime.

Do you have a drug house in your neighborhood?

Drug houses don't just happen in other neighborhoods. There are drug houses in all types of neighborhoods. There are four things that make a drug house:

• Product
• Buyer
• Seller
• Location

Most neighborhoods have very little control over Product, Buyer, or Seller. Drug dealers look for locations where neighbors do not communicate and isolate themselves. This makes it easy to intimidate those neighbors that do notice drug activity. Drug dealers like neighborhoods that say "It can't happen here". Money is a key element for the drug dealer. If they establish a drug house in a neighborhood where kids and adults have money to buy drugs, business will thrive.

What are the warning signs of drug activity in the neighborhood?

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Excessive foot traffic to and from a house or property
• Loitering in or around a house
• Frequent and unusual traffic patterns such as Stop-Enter-Leave
• Threats of intimidation connected to a residence
• Open exchange of drugs and money
• Gang activity in the neighborhood
• Graffiti on structures in the area

Prevention is the best way to stop drug houses

You can reduce the chance that a drug house moves into your neighborhood. Get to know your neighbors. Meet and know your Police Officers. As problems develop in the neighborhood, work with law enforcement to resolve them quickly.

What should you do if there is a drug house in your neighborhood?

One of the tools of the drug dealer is intimidation. There are safety in numbers.

• Start a Neighborhood Watch or build a cooperative effort with other neighbors
• Using the House Watch Sheet on the back of this pamphlet, log all activity connected to the suspected drug house
• Talk to your local Police Officer and give the information from your House Watch Sheet to him.
• Speak with property owners about problems that the tenants are causing for the neighbors. If you are having problems, the property owner is probably having problems too.

Report all problems to the appropriate agency. Police, Fire, Public Works are just some of the agencies that you may call with problems