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Keep YOUR Neighborhood Safe

Code Enforcement and Animal Control Units

Organizational Chart 2013

Simplified Best Case Scenario

  • Nuisance – 30 days
  • Weeds – 14 days
  • Graffiti – less than 24 hours
  • Housing – 180 days
  • Demolitions – up to a year
  • Inoperable vehicles – 30 days

Why are vacant lots a problem?

- it is a neglected parcel of land

- illegal dumping of litter and waste

- home for rats

- unsafe conditions

- crime (drug dealing, prostitution, hiding places for criminals)

- a wasted resource

- unsightly blights

- hazardous waste contamination such as lead, arsenic, asbestos

- disrupts a neighborhood’s sense of community

- lowers property values

  • Tidy up your front lawn (neat hedges, visible home entrance, etc.)
  • Pick up litter on your street
  • Organize a block party to get to know your neighbors
  • Create a community Facebook page (www.nextdoor.com)
  • Be neighborly – watch out for each other
  • Sign up for “Code Red” alerts, TPD’s Facebook page, etc. to get safety tips, crime news and alerts

Inoperable Vehicle's

  • Standards of Measurement

-Flat Tires

-Missing or Broken Windshields

-Up on Jacks

-Missing front end/engine

Inoperable Vehicle Initiative – 260 vehicles removed or repaired

What If.........

  • I want to paint my house lime green?
  • I like toilet planters in my front yard?
  • I leave my Christmas lights up all year?
  • I pave or gravel my entire front yard?
  • I put up blue tarps across my porch?
  • I hate the smell of my neighbors roses?
  • My neighbor has lawn furniture & a firepit in their front yard?

-Helps deter criminals

-Shows you are protective of your neighborhood

-Iimproves public health and safety

Graffiti Violations

  • Most often in a matter of hours, maximum of 24 hours with consent
  • Free to property owner with consent
  • Residences, schools, business owners, public property

Weeds/ Uncultivated Vegetation

  • Weed & uncultivated vegetation

-Grass over 12” high

-Overgrowth of vegetation

-Alleys, easements, right-of-ways

Complaint and Survey Driven

Housing Violations

  • Reactionary - Respond to telephone or e-mail complaints within 48 hours by inspecting properties, determining if there are violations which we are able to address
  • Pro-active – Survey and monitor properties for compliance
  • Calls are not dispatched; we have to check for violations first, and then notify property owners through legal written notification

Exterior

  • Weather tight against elements (doors,windows, roofs, walls)
  • Structurally sound

-foundations, roofs, stairs, porches

-Unsecured vacant, abandoned, etc. structures

-Fire damaged properties

  • (Demolition and unsafe structure proceedings)

To make properties safer through protection against both criminal elements and personal safety, as well as safer through public health and sanitation procedures which affect everyone.

Interior

-Boarding Home & Residential Care Facilities (appropriate sq footage, bathroom facilities)

-Hoarders

-Insufficient plumbing, electricity (hot/cold water)

-Leaking ceilings, windows, doors

-Appropriate exits, handrails, locks, ventilation

-No water or power

-Placards (what, why and purpose)

Nuisance Violations include:

Ideas – broken window, CPTED – removing vegetation grass to not only eliminate critters (snakes, mice, wild animals) but also to stop concealment of criminal element or activity. Houses which appear to be uncared for (broken window theory) gives the impression that no one cares what happens in that area and boarded or vacant houses become the location where criminal, gang and drug activity take place. Code Enforcement tries to take both a pro-active approach as well as respond to complaints to alleviate these issues.

Types of Violation

~Nuisance

~Housing

~Graffiti

~Weeds

~Inoperable Vehicles

Public Safety

  • Broken Window Theory
  • Health and Safety issues
  • Conditions which produce rats/rodents and other pests
  • Conditions which encourage transients and/or criminal activity
  • Unsafe structures

- Tires

- Trash and Debris

- Brush Piles

- Upholstered Furniture

- Appliances

- Scrap Lumber

- Scrap Auto Parts

- Stagnant Water

- Plumbing Fixtures

- Cardboard Boxes

- Mattresses/Box Springs

  • Any condition which provides harborage for rats, mice, snacks (or other vermin) and/or insect infestation
  • Any condition which is unsightly and/or not intended, or weather tight, for outdoor conditions
  • Any condition which is a public health/safety factor

Topeka Police Department

Code Enforcement Unit

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