By Ashley Wiebe

Problem property returned to owner

Jan 4, 2018 | 2:46 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A problem property known for drug activity and violent crime is back in the hands of its owner.

Members with the Medicine Hat Police Service and the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit worked together to close the home at 1170 Bridge Street last September.

Crews had changed the locks and boarded up the doors and windows, and a fence was put up and surrounded the property until last month.

The house was closed for 90 days in hopes of deterring anymore illegal activity.

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Inspector Brent Secondiak said the area has been quiet over the last month.

Police said at the time of the closure the house was linked to drug and other criminal activity in the area.

The closure was only lasted 90 days but the property remains under a community safety order.

Officers will continue to monitor the home until August to make sure the same issues don’t present themselves again.

“We’ve been very fortunate with this particular house, that we had no breaches during the 90 day seizure by SCAN and since then we’ve had no complaints of drug activity from the residence, so in this case it was very effective,” Secondiak said.

He and other officers began meeting with different landlords around the city about the laws surrounding problem tenants and how they can be dealt with.

Last summer, police had said they believed there were as many as 50 drug houses in Medicine Hat, a number which Secondiak said is now “substantially less”.

He said more and more people have come forward with information, which helped police identify where those problem properties were, in turn helping the landlords in those situations.

“Most people who rent out houses don’t want drug activity in their house,” Secondiak said. “It reduces property values, it’s more complaints against the house, there can be damage to the house, so there’s a benefit to them as well. We’ve been working closely with them, we hope to have a new program come out sometime in the new year.”

Officers here are still working closely with the SCAN unit who have started an investigation on two new properties near the Connaught Golf Course.