ELIZABETH CITY POLICE TO SEIZE HOMES WITH DRUG ACTIVITY

ELIZABETH CITY - Boss Sawyer recently evicted a tenant who was convicted of
selling drugs at one of his 100 rental properties in town.

Under a new police policy, Sawyer could have lost the home if he let the
tenant stay.

Police plan to seize and auction homes that are repeatedly rented to drug
dealers.

With more than 60 percent of the city's housing inventory used as rentals,
police hope the prospect of home seizures could urge landlords to help
stamp out persistent drug crimes, Elizabeth City Police Lt. John Young said.

A percentage of the proceeds would go to the city and police department.

Sawyer said the possibility of home seizures puts landlords in a tough
situation because they cannot deny housing to somebody with a criminal record.

"I try to keep the drugs out, but I rent to who I can," he said. "The law
says you have to rent to everybody. You can't discriminate."

Police expect to seize few homes and focus on educating landlords about how
to keep drug dealers out of their properties, Police Capt. Frank Koch said.

"We may seize one (home) a year or one every other year," Koch said.
Landlords will "know what we expect out of them, what they can expect from
us and what we can do to help."

Police will host a training seminar for landlords May 10 in the conference
room of the Hampton Inn on Halstead Boulevard.

The three-hour session will cover criminal background checks, rights of
landlords and tenants, code enforcement, inspection issues, city housing
initiatives, how to spot illegal activity and eviction.

The department's seizure policy would mesh with other citywide efforts to
improve rental housing and beef up building inspections, said City
Councilwoman Jean Baker, who is leading a committee on housing standards.

"The important thing is to educate landlords on what their rights and
responsibilities are," she said.

Critics of property seizure, though, say it does little to curb crime and
unfairly punishes property owners.

"It does not deal with the problem because a drug dealer doesn't care if a
landlord loses a property - they will just move some place else," said
Brenda Grantland, with the national organization Forfeiture Endangers
American Rights. "It doesn't solve the problem. It just gives the
appearance that something is being done."

The federal and state laws that allow home seizures are often used to seize
cash, cars and other property, said Erwin Chemerinsky, an expert on
constitutional law and professor at the Duke University School of Law.

"Actually taking a house itself is much more unusual, but not unheard of,"
he said.

To seize a house, police must prove that criminal activity, such as selling
drugs, had taken place on a property, whether in a yard or inside a home,
Chemerinsky said.

Police also must show that the value of a home is not disproportionate to a
crime. A million-dollar house, for example, is not likely to be seized over
a bag of crack, Chemerinsky said.

Seizure laws apply whether a home owner or tenant commits a crime.

"Even if the property is owned by an innocent person, the government can
seize it," Chemerinsky said.