 Unfortunately,
a common complaint made to the police involves the frequent buying and
selling of drugs in the public areas of multi-dwelling apartment
buildings. Law abiding tenants and landlords were often powerless to rid
their buildings of drug trafficking and the criminal activity that comes
with it.
Now
however, tenants and landlords can address those concerns by teaming up
with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and their local
police precinct through the Formal Trespass Affidavit Program—which we
call F-TAP.
To
participate in F-TAP landlords or managing agents are asked to sign an affidavit,
authorizing their local police to perform “vertical” patrols in
their building. They must give police an up-to-date list of tenant
residents and keys to the common areas in the building. In addition,
landlords and managing agents are required to prominently post
throughout their building signs, which read, “TENANTS AND THEIR GUESTS
ONLY”.
Local police must photograph the signs in place, keep a set of
photographs at the precinct and send copies of the photos to the
District Attorney’s Office, along with copies of the affidavits and
tenant listings.
With
all of the above in place, local precincts can then schedule vertical
patrols in buildings that are experiencing drug-related crime problems. |
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| Each precinct maintains a list of buildings in the program which
shows: building location by address, nature of crime problem(s), and
time of day when criminal activity is prevalent.
Patrol supervisors then schedule and designate police officers to
tour the building during and/or around those periods. Any person found
to be in violation of the building’s posted warning signs may be
arrested for criminal trespass. The discretion to make such arrests
remains with the police department.
Program
success relies heavily on the police maintaining accurate and up-to-date
information on tenant listings. The landlord’s list of tenants living
in each building, must be updated monthly. This will ensure that police
officers have the most current and accurate information while conducting
vertical patrols. In addition, affidavits from landlords and managing
agents must be renewed before their scheduled expiration period if the
precinct wants to continue its patrols in that building. Copies of
renewed affidavits, changed tenant listings and a written statement that
the building’s posted signs are still in place must be delivered to
the designated District Attorney’s Office location. The written
statement should come from an individual with oversight for this program
at the precinct.
By
integrating resources of the District Attorney’s Office, tenants and
local law enforcement, entrenched crime in multiple dwelling buildings
can be successfully eliminated. |
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