News
Atlanta puts building code enforcement under police department
Atlanta is toughening its building codes enforcement – with the emphasis on enforcement. In February, the city put the civilian codes enforcement department under police direction, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The city is trying to crack down on thousands of abandoned or dilapidated properties, a longstanding problem made worse by the foreclosure crisis. Police say the eyesores feed crime, so that appropriately puts it in their court.
“Once you have police showing up to say ‘fix that or go to jail,’ you’re going to get things done,” Councilman Kwanza Hall told the newspaper. Some of the worst properties are in Hall’s district, including one seedy apartment building where police made 1,572 calls over four years. The apartments are now slated to be demolished and replaced with recreation and intramural fields for nearby Georgia State University.
The city is moving aggressively to tear down properties that have significant code violations or incessant crime. Officials have increased efforts to track down owners of problem properties and take them to court.
In 2010, 22 structures were torn down on court orders, according to the newspaper. Last year 46 structures were demolished. At the beginning of this year, there were 119 demolition orders approved with another 140 cases pending.
The city asked neighborhood leaders to identify the five worst properties in their areas. Then inspectors and police followed up.
That get-tough approach applies not only to violators, but also to the inspectors themselves, according to the police commander who now heads the enforcement unit. The unit will operate like cops, said Lt. C.J. Davis.
“It’s not going to be ‘We’ll get to it when we get to it,’” Davis told the newspaper. “There’s roll call. There’s expectations. There will be a service and response to the community. You will answer that call.”
Ouch!!! Why is it that the
Ouch!!! Why is it that the fire department didn’t stand up to the plate and take over this function completely.
Fires are down in the country and fire units have the capacity to do more for the taxpayers. They are already trained in code enforcement; inspections and code enforcement should be a major responsibility of line fire companies in every district.
It is good that Atlanta is
It is good that Atlanta is stepping up the enforcement, and if using the police department is what it took, that’s great, but the article makes it sound like its not achievable through the code enforcement office. In a City of under 15,000, we made the effort to do the same thing, we have been averaging 25 deteriorated properties removed per year over the last 5 years by City contracted effort, and have had up to 20 more per year removed as the result of pressure by the Code Office to get them removed.
The last comment regarding the Code Enforcement in Atlanta “getting to it when they get to it” might have fit their City, but certainly shouldn’t be considered the norm when comparing the effectiveness of Code Enforcement as compared to the Police in other locations.
I would be curious to know if they kept the current code enforcement staff and put them through the numerous hours of required training to become police officers, so they could wear the uniform and badge? If not, did they simply retain the staff and just fall under new management of the Police? If that was the case, then it would appear that the manager of Code Enforcement was simply not effective and staff was capable.
@ anonymous poster #2 I am
@ anonymous poster #2 I am one of the community leaders that the city asked for help on identifying the problem properties. The ones I flagged for priority have been ones I have been tracking for 2, 5 and 10 years respectively. It’s been a year since the change was made and there is zero progress. Some parts of town have been helped but in my SW Atlanta neighborhood, the process continues to fail.
When I talk with members of city council, the mayors office and code enforcement, I get the same runaround that they have been giving for years. One property has holes in the roof that can be seen from google earth, is back 7 years on taxes, seriously overgrown and has no utilities…all while the owner continues to live in the house. ,I have been told that the property cannot be demolished because the owner would be rendered homeless.
Unfortunately this sense of misplaced “compassion” means that I and my neighbors are forced to live next to squalor in our community it’s that is less than 5 miles from city hall.
We have gotten so fed up that we have hired an attorney to bring suit against the city of Atlanta for failing to do its job.
A change in leadership is indeed required, however it’s not the director of code enforce my that needs to go…it’s Mayor reed.