Meth-lab evictions, a useful legal tool

King County sheriff's deputies and local citizens have struggled mightily to combat drugs and violent crime in unincorporated areas. They should be given all the legal tools necessary to continue the fight.

Able assistance comes by way of a smart idea by Metropolitan King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn to help landlords evict drug dealers and fine property owners who would rather look the other way.

Dunn's proposed ordinance adds a missing piece to the community policing troika: property owners. Considerable resources by law enforcement and neighbors are often spent combating criminal activity on a property; those efforts deserve the help of the property owner.

Some landlords never learn of allegations of crime on their property. This would change. The Sheriff's Office would be required to notify landlords each time deputies are called to the property in connection with crimes that include felonies, drug and sex offenses and furnishing alcohol to minors.

Three notifications in six-months would require an owner to try to curtail the illegal activity, either by working with police or evicting the tenants. Turning a blind eye would no longer be an option.

Enlisting rental-property owners in the cooperative efforts of law enforcement and neighborhoods is community policing at its best. Credit King County Sheriff Sue Rahr for getting behind the proposal as one more tool in the battle against methamphetamine labs dotting the edges of our county.

It was the stubborn persistence of meth houses that forced Dunn to get creative. Hearing that sheriff's deputies visited one suspected meth lab 37 times before the occupants of the house were evicted, Dunn expressed the frustration of many citizens when he said it shouldn't be so hard to get a drug house out of the community.

The Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound would agree. The group that represents landlords and property owners supports the proposed ordinance because it allows the police notifications of suspected criminal activity to be admissible in court eviction proceedings.

Stronger community policing efforts rewarded by safer neighborhoods — that ought to be an easy vote for the County Council.