Civil Remedies

Summary

A civil remedy may be used in place of—or often in tandem with—criminal penalties as an incentive for a person or business to refrain from the focus of concern. Effectively enforcing local regulatory codes can reduce drug activity occurring at real-property locations, such as individual addresses or geographical areas. Civil remedies can also induce changes to property conditions and practices that facilitate crime. Examples of this use include agencies enforcing health and safety codes to force landlords to clean up housing used for drug use, or when the potential enforcement of licensing laws helps persuade pub owners to cooperate in an initiative to reduce late-night crime and disorder. These types of control are increasingly being brought to bear in both public and private property contexts.

These interventions increase the capacity of the local community to act as informal and formal agents of crime prevention. The local community is often the first party to notice the problems around drugs and the best source of information about the patterns associated with it.

Nuisance Abatement

Nuisance abatement refers to a legal action to change a situation in which a person is being deprived of his or her right to “quiet enjoyment” by some existing condition, or by actions being carried out by another person, group or business. A nuisance abatement is a civil action taken against the owner of a property to stop certain behavior on the property or improve conditions of the property. Specific abatement procedures vary across jurisdictions, but typically they include sending warning letters to property owners, issuing injunctions and evicting tenants, or more rarely, seizure of the property. Nuisance abatement actions are an important tool in controlling drug dealing in open-air markets and can be used against properties that are shown to be fostering a drug market. Community partnerships can be particularly useful if local laws allow their direct involvement in bringing abatement actions.

Regulatory Codes

Code enforcement is one of the most common civil prevention incentives and refers to the legal action taken by an enforcement body in response to a violation of one or more municipal health and safety codes, such as those related to building construction, building conditions (e.g., fire and safety and nuisance-control), and the operation of a business.
Different agencies often control the enforcement of different regulatory codes; hence, the need for cooperation and coordinated responses among these agencies. When there is a violation or breach, it often relates to noise, waste, or safety. Owners can be compelled to act to make their premises comply with the standards set out in the code. A civil injunction may be issued that requires them to deal with these problems. Owners can be called on to secure their buildings, clean up litter, improve the physical environment and evict tenants suspected of drug involvement (or other violations of the terms of their leases).

Land Use Ordinances or Zoning

Zoning refers to the governmental regulation of property uses on a long-range basis, particularly as part of long- term land-use planning. These regulations—which can apply to general areas (hence “zones”) or to location- specific land uses—include limits to the sizes and types of structures built on land and whether the property can be used for residential, commercial, industrial or other kinds of purposes. Zoning is also used to limit when businesses in an area can be open.

One type of exception to a zoning restriction is a conditional use permit, which is given by the regulatory body when certain conditions are met; this type of permit is generally limited in scope to a particular property. Mixed-use zones permit several different uses to occur in the same zone. Zoning laws can be used to prevent a range of illegal activities by limiting the types of legal (and potentially illegal) activities—from alcohol consumption and sales, to dancing and having rave parties—that are permitted in particular areas. Some communities have restrictions on the number or types of businesses in a given block.

Other communities restrict certain business types to one well-defined area to allow for concentrated police surveillance and enforcement. Many localities, including Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; and Dallas, Texas, have passed zoning laws to restrict the location of adult-oriented activities considered to be generators of crime and neighborhood disorder.

Core Components

Dosage/Frequency

Dosage and frequency will be decided dependent on the type of change the community focuses on. This dosage will need to be reviewed and approved by the Agency.

Required Key Steps

All policies developed or strengthened through this strategy must be formally written, signed by the community leadership and kept on file at the contracted agency as documentation. Contact the Agency Project Director/Coordinator for additional grant requirements about this documentation.

In collaboration with the coalition and community partners, complete the following:

• Identify the issue related to drug use based on data.
• Review current or needed issue-specific civil remedies.
  • Revisions or amendments to current or ordinances may need to be necessary. Civil remedies cannot infringe on fundamental rights of the focused population and should not impact non-offending parties.
  • Review the “Using Civil Action Against Property to Control Crime Guide”, Table B1 on page 42 to review civil remedies currently available or needed.
• Identify community collaborators to involve in the process including:
  • City or County Attorney
  • City or County regulatory staff
  • Law enforcement agencies
• Engage any additional agencies in this process.
• Consider ways to engage the broader community.
• Additional steps vary depending on the type of civil remedy identified. Consider the following:
  • Engage the community residents in efforts.
  • Engage and provide supports (sharing information, connecting to training) to place managers to become more proactive.
  • Notify mortgage holders of problem issues.
  • Provide information about Your Life Iowa as a resource to law enforcement, place managers and residents.
  • Action should focus on information sharing and prevention of further issues.
• For policy change efforts focus on the following steps:
  • Utilize the 8 P’s for policy change efforts.
• Once a policy has passed, in collaboration with the community:
  • Create a plan to educate the community about the policy.
  • Create a plan that will ensure ongoing monitoring of use and enforcement of the policy.

Implementation Resources

Responses to the Problem of Drug Dealing in Open-Air Markets
Summary of Responses (includes details about the strategy options)
Using Civil Action Against Property to Control Crime Guide

References

Ashe, M., Jernigan, D., Kline, R., & Galaz, R. (2003). Land use planning and the control of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and fast-food restaurants. Am J of Public Health, 93(9), 1404–1408. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.9.1404

Birckmayer, J., Fisher, D. A., Holder, H. D., & Yacoubian, G. S. (2008). Prevention of methamphetamine abuse: Can existing evidence inform community prevention? Drug Education, 28(2), 147-165. https://doi.org/10.2190/DE.38.2.d

May, T., Hough, M. Illegal Dealings: The Impact of Low-Level Police Enforcement on Drug Markets. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 9, 137–162 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011201112490