An obscure but important city statute is under attack by advocates and some local media. Here’s why we still need the nuisance-abatement law to keep New York City’s neighborhoods safe.
The law was enacted in late the 1970s as a lifeline to a city spiraling downward.
The goal: to combat problems like the massage parlors that littered Times Square, as well as drug dens and brothels.
At a time when criminals seemed to travel in and out of the revolving doors of justice, the nuisance-abatement law took a civil approach by targeting the physical locations where illegal activity regularly occurred, by shutting them down.
When the criminals got out — their base was gone.
It was highly effective then and remains highly effective today.
The memories of the decades of rampant crime grow smaller in the rearview mirror of history. But they are worth remembering, so history doesn’t repeat itself.
The good news is, crime is down to the lowest levels in history; the bad news is, there are still some pockets of disorder and fear. That is where the NYPD focuses most of our attention.
When we get neighborhood complaints about violence and drug dealing centered around a building, we investigate to determine who’s responsible. And when we find a drug dealer operating from his apartment in that building — selling drugs to thugs who roam the hallways with guns, while the residents cower in fear — we take action.
We make arrests, but if the problem persists, police have options, both criminal and civil. After several drug buys, the person selling those drugs can be arrested, and with an order from a civil court, barred from coming back to that apartment.
The dealer often isn’t the tenant on the lease, or even a relative. But he (or, sometimes, she) is endangering a whole building and even an entire street.
Other “nuisances” include the corner store that peddles synthetic marijuana. The motel that intentionally turns a blind eye to prostitution. The salvage yard moonlighting as a chop shop.
All are the reasons the nuisance-abatement law remains not just relevant but vital to the mission of protecting public safety.
It is not a simple process. To qualify for nuisance abatement, a location must be a repeat offender. Every NYPD application for a nuisance-abatement order documents the crimes. The allegations, including statements by police officers under oath, are detailed and can run 60 to 80 pages.
And a judge must review and approve the application — that’s the only way a nuisance-abatement closing can occur.
Some criticism focuses on people who say they were locked out of apartments without due process. A review of the facts would show that some of them never went to court to argue their case, while others, not surprisingly, left out important information about their cases.
For balance, you need to hear from the people who called the police time and time again in fear — people calling about the Bronx bodega down the street selling K2 to school kids, complaining about the Manhattan drug den or a Brooklyn apartment where cocaine and ammunition were seized.
The people who called were generally struggling, in some tough neighborhoods.
When people on the Upper East Side find something annoying, they hire their own lawyers and sue. When people who have very little have a persistent problem, they call us.
We bring enforcement and all the tools we have, criminal and civil. We try to deal with the problem. We try to help them. We’re the police. That’s what we do.
Nuisance abatement is an important, legal tool for the police and the courts.
It is even a more important tool for those who have to live near the drug dens, brothels and other “nuisances” that need abating.
William J. Bratton is the commissioner of the New York Police Department.