The traditional police response to most criminal activity is to focus on the offenders that commit the crimes. The ultimate goal is to identify and arrest the individuals responsible for committing crime. By arresting, convicting and incarcerating these offenders for the crimes they have committed, we hope to reduce crime by placing controls on the criminal offenders. Although the criminal justice system places controls on these offenders, some continue to commit criminal activity.

Just as there are repeat criminal offenders, there are also locations where criminal activity repeatedly occurs. Usually there are several offenders committing crime at these locations. There are many reasons why criminals chose particular locations to commit their crimes. In most situations, criminal offenders make logical choices when deciding where they are going to commit their crimes. Criminals weigh their reward of committing the crime with the risk of getting caught. Therefore, an effective way to reduce crime is for police to also concentrate on the locations where criminal activity repeatedly occurs.

The S.A.F.E. Unit's mission is to reduce crime and increase our citizen's quality of life by using all criminal, civil, and community resources to obtain the cooperation of property owners to remove criminal activity and deny criminals the use of real property as a base of operations.

S.A.F.E. Unit detectives on the front porch of a drug house that was ordered closed by District Court using the Texas Nuisance Abatement Statutes.

The acronym "S.A.F.E." stands for:

SUPPORT
ABATEMENT
FORFEITURE
ENFORCEMENT

SUPPORT

The S.A.F.E. Unit supports property owner's attempts to maintain safe and peaceful properties through the use of Crime Prevention Through Environment Design inspections and the Crime Free Multi-Housing and Crime Free Rental Property programs. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design is based on the premise that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to the reduction in the number of criminal incidents, a reduction in the fear of crime and an improved quality of life.

ABATEMENT

The nuisance abatement process is used to reduce criminal activity such as drugs, prostitution and shootings at high crime locations by compelling property owners to take responsibility for criminal activity occurring on their properties. Nuisance crimes, defined by Chapter 125 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code are:

• prostitution,
• discharge of a firearm,
• commercial obscenity,
• drug crimes,
• illegal gambling,
• criminal gang activity,
• alcoholic beverage violations, and
• apartment communities with violent crimes.

By statute, law enforcement does not have to prove that the property owner was involved in any criminal activity, only that the property owner knowingly allowed criminal acts to occur on the property.

In most nuisance abatement investigations, a civil lawsuit does not have to be filed to reduce the criminal activity at the location. Experience has shown that most property owners, when notified of nuisance activity on their property, willingly remove the offenders from the property and take corrective action to improve the environment that allowed the nuisance activity to occur. When the property owner voluntarily takes this action, reasonable steps have been taken to correct the nuisance activity.

The S.A.F.E. Unit researches every nuisance crime to determine if action should be taken to remove the nuisance activity. The S.A.F.E. Unit screens each case to determine if:

• The criminal nuisance activity occurred on private property; and,
• If the owner or owner's representative was involved in reporting the nuisance activity to the police.

If the property owner was not involved in reporting the activity to the police, the S.A.F.E. Unit notifies them of the activity occurring on their property. The S.A.F.E. Unit provides recommendations to correct the conditions that allowed the nuisance activity to occur. These recommendations vary depending upon the nature of the nuisance activity, and the factors that contributed to the activity.

If additional nuisance crimes occur on the property and the owner is not willing to self-abate the nuisances, a civil lawsuit will be filed against the property in District Court. If the court rules in favor of the city, the property is closed for one year unless a $10,000 cash penal bond is posted. If the property is closed by the court, the property is boarded up and no one, including the owner, can be on the property without the permission of the court.