The Observation Deck

The police have to make three citations or arrests before the nuisance law kicks in. If the police investigate a noise complaint and there's no noise when they get there, if they don't have an apartment number, they can't even advise anyone that there was a complaint.

Just because the police have been to an address repeatedly doesn't mean that citations were issued / arrests were made. Usually warnings are given to allow for people to change their behavior (turn the volume down).

I also think it's appropriate to email the Chief to let him know that this building needs closer attention.

David probably also has the option to keep a log of everything he has witnessed and sue the property owner for maintaining a public nuisance.

People can make a lot of complaints about nuisance neighbors and they aren't always valid. I am not commenting on David's problem when I say that.

I've heard complaints on the scanner where an angry neighbor said people were smoking pot on the front porch. Police investigated, no evidence of pot was found and both parties were advised. The neighbors appeared to have been smoking cigarettes. A few minutes later, the complainant called again and said that the cigarette smoke was damaging his/her plants.

David would need to see the files on the building in his case to see what police actually did and how his complaints were handled.

dl meckes wrote:The police have to make three citations or arrests before the nuisance law kicks in. If the police investigate a noise complaint and there's no noise when they get there, if they don't have an apartment number, they can't even advise anyone that there was a complaint.

I have been told by 2 Lakewood officers "By the time we get here the've all gone inside." I belive the police act on our behalf and they do have a set of rules that i'm sure they adhere to.

I do understand that it get to a point that you cannot reason with the offenders. On the other hand just this weekend we settled a neighborly dispute with a beer and an hour of conversation. Too bad it all does not work like that.

dl meckes wrote:
Just because the police have been to an address repeatedly doesn't mean that citations were issued / arrests were made. Usually warnings are given to allow for people to change their behavior (turn the volume down).

How many visits/warnings until an actual arrest is made or a citation is issued? Repeated visits by the police are not good for a lot of reasons.

Rick Uldricks wrote:

dl meckes wrote:
Just because the police have been to an address repeatedly doesn't mean that citations were issued / arrests were made. Usually warnings are given to allow for people to change their behavior (turn the volume down).

How many visits/warnings until an actual arrest is made or a citation is issued? Repeated visits by the police are not good for a lot of reasons.

I was under the understanding that according the nuisance law...if the police have documented 3 nuisance calls, then a citation is given after the 3rd time (with it all being completely under the officers discretion to cite). I don't think there's ever an arrest. The jail isn't big enough! If the violators are tenants, and the citations don't cease their behavior, the landlords begin getting cited.

It depends on the circumstances. I don't think we want to have a zero tolerance rule for most people - we only want to have zero tolerance for repeat egregious offenders, right?

Usually a first visit will get a warning, but it depends on the circumstances. The second visit will often get you a citation, a third visit will certainly get you one.

We need to have the LPD free to make decisions about how to proceed. Neighbor wars can mean that a lot more calls might be made than are reasonable.

I noticed a for rent sign in one of the windows this morning. I think the sister of the two brothers moved out because of all of the recent activity.

I just received another response from Chief Malley. It looks like there have been several police calls to another address within the building.

I did some research and found that the owners of the building also own another apartment building in Brook Park. I wonder if there are similar problems there....?