By Ashley Wiebe

Police, landlords partnering in drug house crack down

Sep 22, 2017 | 4:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Members of the Medicine Hat Police Service are now saying there may be as many as 50 drug houses in our city.

The idea of bringing the Alberta Sheriffs back was discussed at the police commission meeting on Thursday.

“We did more of a systematic review of some of the complaints that we’re getting and it’s up to 50,” said Inspector Brent Secondiak.

The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Unit (SCAN) has helped shut down two homes in Medicine Hat this year alone and it’s a tactic board member and councillor Robert Dumanowski said he’d like to see happen more often.

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“The fact of the matter is, it’s a very successful initiative but it does entail a lot of work in advance of the police service,” he said.

But getting a judge to agree to a closure isn’t always an easy process.

“The courts consider somebody’s home as a sanctity and for us to even go in it you need a search warrant,” Secondiak said. “So the process from when we first get a report of a drug house ‘til SCAN can close it down can be over a year.”

Secondiak said officers do regular patrols on problem properties where drug activity is known. In some cases, the service will also reach out to the residents when the issues become routine.

“Anytime there’s a complaint on a drug house, we’ll go give a letter to the tenants of the house saying your house is a known drug house and you need to stop all activity. We’ll go then and give a letter to the neighbours and tell them if there’s any complaints, any criminal activity, call us right away,” Secondiak added.

In the near future, the service will enlist the help of property owners.

Secondiak said almost all of the known drug houses in the city are rental properties and landlords need to be part of the solution. It’s a project he said police are already working on.

“There’s some more programs coming out that we haven’t officially launched yet but should be in the next couple weeks that really will give the landlords more information, or rights contractually, before a tenant comes in and on how to deal with problem tenants,” he said.

It won’t be a quick fix and Dumanowski said there’s one thing residents should keep in mind.

“We can’t lose the fact that there have always been drug houses in the community and there always will be,” he said.