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Block Flourishes Without 'Drug House': Boise Police Executed 43 Narcotics Searches Last Year

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 09:01 CST

By Heath Druzin, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Feb. 14--Mattresses littered the weed-infested front lawn and people swilled beer and used foul language outside the rundown Denton Street house, but it was what went on inside that most disturbed Lynn Lockhart. It was known as a drug house and it scared Lockhart, who lived across the street.

"It's really unsettling to think you have that kind of activity going on next door or across the street," she said.

Now, the same house is neat, its lawn manicured, and a family has replaced suspected drug dealers as residents.

A narcotics search warrant served on the former resident was one of 43 such warrants Boise Police Neighborhood Contact Officers executed in 2005, according to numbers recently released by the department. It's part of a concerted effort by neighborhood officers to tackle localized drug activity, said Officer Paul Burch, who works with residents of the Bench neighborhood where Lockhart lives.

"The more that we do it, the more people know we are active in these areas, the more they report these things," Burch said.

In 2005, Neighborhood Contact officers made more than 100 arrests and seized more than 800 grams of methamphetamine, nearly six pounds of marijuana, more than 100 grams of psychedelic mushrooms and about $30,000. They also shut down a number of "drug houses," police said.

Burch said such houses make neighbors uneasy and can pose environmental dangers. Some of the drug houses that neighborhood officers have shut down were methamphetamine labs, which Burch said can explode, expose neighbors to dangerous chemicals and leave unsafe living conditions for future tenants if not properly cleaned up.

"Meth labs all the way around are very dangerous, very caustic," he said.

Neighborhood officers work closely with residents and landlords, operating largely on tips. Burch said neighbor input is invaluable to battling localized drug issues.

"We try to work with them and give them positive solutions," he said.

Officers also give property owners advice on screening renters to help keep drug dealers out of their buildings.

"We give confidence back to the neighborhood," Burch said.

Lockhart said there's been an "increase in the sense of community among our neighbors" since they started working with police to tackle the neighborhood's drug problem. Because of the neighborhood officers' efforts, she said she no longer hears cars driving in and out of her neighborhood at all hours of the night. She feels safer in her home.

"I've got nothing but incredibly positive things to say" about the program, she said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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