Crystal Lake police look to hold property owners accountable
By JIM BUTTS - jbutts@nwherald.com
CRYSTAL LAKE – Police had a folder 3 inches thick with reports of noise, underage drinking, and battery at a notorious party house in Algonquin.
Police eventually responded to a near-fatal stabbing at the home, Algonquin Deputy Police Chief Ed Urban said.
“We really didn’t have an effective legislative tool to deal with it,” Urban said.
The circumstances of the incident led the village to adopt a new legislative tool – a chronic nuisance ordinance – last year, Urban said. The ordinance allows police to pressure property owners into putting an end to repeated criminal activities taking place on their property.
The Crystal Lake City Council will consider a similar chronic nuisance ordinance Tuesday.
Such ordinances appear to being growing in popularity across the nation, according to news reports and law enforcement officials. But the laws also have come under fire, especially from landlord groups.
In Crystal Lake, some local political leaders and landlords have expressed worry that the ordinance would give too much discretion to the police department, could discourage victims from calling the police, and would be unfair to the owners of large buildings with many tenants or customers.
Crystal Lake police have revised the ordinance to address some of the concerns raised by council members and the public at previous city meetings.
The proposed ordinance would give Crystal Lake police the power to seek a penalty for a property owner if officers respond to certain types of criminal complaint calls at the same location three times in a 120-day period.
After the second incident, police would warn the property owner and try to work out a solution.
An administrative judge who works for the city would be responsible for issuing fines for first- and second-time offenders. A McHenry County Circuit Court judge could issue fines or close the property for a time for third-time offenders.
But the revised ordinance does not go far enough to protect landlords’ rights, said Julie Eckard, executive director of the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association.
For instance, the list of offenses targeted by the law, including underage drinking, noise violations, battery and sexual assault, is too broad, she said.
Penalties for nuisance crimes should be directed toward tenants, not landlords, Eckard said.
“It’s not my job as a landlord to baby-sit,” Eckard said. “[The police] are asking us to do their job.”
Legally, landlords often can do little to mitigate nuisance complaints other than asking their tenants to stop doing the activities, Eckard said. Oftentimes they can’t evict a tenant without violating a lease agreement, she said.
“I can’t be responsible for my tenants; I can’t be responsible if [a] dad is abusing the daughter,” she said. “How am I supposed to know?”
But the ordinance has proved effective in other communities, said John Campbell, an expert in nuisance laws and president of consulting firm Campbell Delong Resources Inc.
When Portland, Ore., was dealing with drug and gang houses in the 1980s, police found that the crimes very often occurred in rental properties, Campbell said.
The police soon looked for tools that would involve landlords and neighbors in helping protect neighborhoods, he said. The nuisance ordinance proved to be effective.
“Using arrests as the only tool to fight crime doesn’t solve these things,” Campbell said.
Chronic nuisance ordinances help “change the conversation” that law enforcement is a community issue and not just about police work, he said.
In Algonquin, Deputy Chief Urban said police had made use of the new chronic nuisance law only once.
In that instance, police talked with the property owner. So far, the issue appears to have been resolved without the need for additional action, he said.
“It’s a tool just to get a little leverage for people to cooperate,” Urban said. “We try to problem-solve, we try not to just browbeat people with the threat of an ordinance.”
If you go
What: Crystal Lake City Council meeting.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Where: Crystal Lake Municipal Complex, 100 W. Woodstock St., Crystal Lake.
