Nuisance Laws Fine Victims

Nuisance laws levy fines against properties that are the sites of multiple calls to 911. The rationale behind these laws is that, if criminals are regularly breaking laws on the same property, property owners should have a monetary disincentive for allowing the problems to continue. The ACLU writes "…alleged nuisance conduct (a category that can include assault, harassment, stalking, disorderly conduct, and many other kinds of behavior)." These fines can be levied whether the person living at the property is the criminal or the victim.

The result is that victims of abuse, assault or stalking can be fined for reporting abuse. These crimes, many of which already go unreported, become even harder to report when the victim fears a fine or that the authorities will contact their landlord.

Another problem for renters, is access to due process, "Fifty percent of the nuisance letters reviewed in the study were issued for renters. Those letters, most times, however, are sent to the property owner or landlord, giving renters no avenue to contest the findings, even when the issue at hand was in no way criminal," Vince Grzegorek writes for Cleveland Scene. This was exactly the case when a woman living in Lakewood Ohio was fined for being assaulted by a visitor in her home, who had broken her nose and concussed her.

That case is by no means an anomaly. In the cities of Bedford, Lakewood, Euclid and Parma “Domestic violence accounted for between 21 and 56% of the nuisance letters in the study — but it also includes people who have called 911 for mental health reasons, including reporting suicidal family members, or drug addiction," Grzegorek reports.