Cracking down on drug houses
Do you think you may have a drug
house in your neighborhood? The Bellingham Police Department offers warning
signs of drug activity, and steps you can take to safely report your
concerns.
Warning signs of drug activity
While some of the indicators are reasonably conclusive in and of
themselves, others should be considered significant only if multiple factors
are present.
- High traffic: Cars and pedestrians stopping at a
home for only brief periods.
- Movement of valuables: People bringing valuables to
a home, such as bikes or electronics, and leaving empty handed.
- Possible lookouts: Visitors sitting in the car for
awhile after leaving the residence or leaving one person in the car
while inside, as lookouts.
- Obvious exchanges: Obvious signs of people
exchanging packets for cash.
- Obvious drug use: Using drugs while sitting in
their car.
- Paraphernalia: Syringes and other drug
paraphernalia found lying around.
- Regular late activity: Regular activity at
extremely late hours. Several common drugs are stimulants and users tend
to stay up late at night. This could include foot/vehicle traffic or
"tinkering" with cars, electronics, etc.
- Deliveries: Motorcycles and bicycles making
frequent late night trips to and from a residence where other indicators
of drug activity are observed.
What you can do
You can report information about suspected drug activities to the
Bellingham Police Department Special Investigations Unit at 778-8611. If you
are willing to leave your information, a detective will return your call.
Any of the following list of observable information is helpful to police
when reporting suspected drug activity:
- Date and time people or vehicles arrive and leave
- Type of activities observed
- Vehicle license plate(s) and state(s) of issue
- Vehicle(s) description and number of occupants.
Please, never put yourself or anyone else in danger while attempting to
get information or obtain a license plate number!
For more information, contact the
Bellingham Police
Department.
Date Published: Nov 3, 2011
