Neighbors Close Down Syracuse Crack House

With so many communities being held hostage by low level street drug dealers, Friday's Syracuse Post -Standard newspaper tells a story of one community where neighbors banned together to put a crack house out of business.

According to the Post-Standard, neighbors noticed strange happenings at home on Ruskin Avenue that has been vacant for quite a while. Days following the St Valentines Day snowstorm this year, one neighbor observed a 3-4 men shoveling their way into the vacant home. At first the neighbor thought of the possibility that the person who owned the home could have hired them to keep the side walk clean in front of the home. But the men stayed in the home and the car traffic began. Neighbors began to see weird behavior from those visiting the house.

One neighbor began keeping a log-journal of license plates on the cars that stopped at the house. What really put things into perspective were when the appearance of black garbage bags seemed to have been placed all over the first floor windows.

So happens, neighbors knew of a Syracuse Police Officer who grew up two houses down from the crack den. A phone call was made to the mother (who no longer lives on the street) of Lt. Joe Cecile, and from there a bond between the police and community began.

"They know me. The first person to call me was the mother of one of my best friends in high school." Joe Cecile tells the Post-Standard.

More neighbors became involved and they were able to supply the police with descriptions of those entering the crack house. Some went as far as to have police set up in their homes to monitor the people coming and going from the home.

On any given day, an average of about 60 people would visit the crack house and stay for a mere 5 minutes at the most.

A month after neighbors first contacted Lt. Ceile, on April 3 the police raided the drug depot. Surprisingly one of the people arrested during the investigation was the home's owner. Nancy Acosta told police she was indeed aware of drug sales going on in the home, and she rented the home out to drug dealers so she can pay the mortgage on the house.

Besides the owner, six more people were charged.

The drug busting neighbors offers advice to the Post-Standard readers on how to recognize the problem of drug dealing in your own neighborhood:

Organize: Get neighbors involved. Get everyone on the same page and compare notes.

Network: If you know a police officer or government official, call and voice your concerns.

Take notes: Write down license plate numbers, frequency and number of visitors.

And finally be safe: Do not confront a suspected drug dealer face to face. Take what you know and let the police handle it.

This time the good guys won. The neighbors of 125 Ruskin Avenue proved that the War on Drugs can be won if neighbors do not turn the other cheek when it comes to their community.

SOURCE:

Baker A., Robert (2007/29/06). Police: Four observant neighbors help close crack house. Retrieved June 29, 2007, from Syracuse.com The Post-Standard Web site: http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1183107626104770.xml&coll=1&thispage=1