Need some help in getting rid of loiterers in neighborhood (78212)

[ggeorgie]

Originally Posted by jwebtx

call the police, 411 for code compliance on the property owner, and TABC if they drink at the ice house.

Yes, call code compliance; also go to www.bcad.org and do a property search on the address, find the owners, call them or send them a letter about whats going on on their property.

[SanAntonianByChoice]

I agree with *mud*.....do they police/patrol differently in different areas? I wonder what the response would be if these folks were plopped off 410/Nacogdoches by TETCO to enjoy their frosty beverages.




"just taking a wild guess here.....

this would not happen -

downtown,
alamo heights,
terrell hills,
balcone heights,
across from an h e b,
across the street from diego bernal's residence,
etc"

[SanAntonianByChoice]

Heart goes out to you Dizzyswoopes. It's one thing to drive by what you have described, it's totally different when it's practically outside your front door. Good Luck----

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by SanAntonianByChoice

"just taking a wild guess here.....

this would not happen -

downtown,
alamo heights,
terrell hills,
balcone heights,
across from an h e b,
across the street from diego bernal's residence,
etc"

See it in downtown all the time

And while I'm not sure this happens outside Diego's residence, he's had plenty of others harassing him directly, so would not be surprised. And if it did, I'm willing to bet he'd go out and make friends with this group. That's his style.

I feel for the OP, it's a difficult situation and we have a place like that in our neighborhood. We advised our friend with small kids to not buy the house directly across the street (but partly because I know it'd make them panic). If it was us, I'd be concerned, but I think ultimately I'd befriend them. I've lived elsewhere in situations like this (tho without kids, which makes a difference), and that's pretty much what I did and the payoff is that they became my protectors of sorts.

Vagrancy/loitering is a problematic, and I don't blame you for calling the police, but realistically, there's not a lot that will change it.

[Dizzyswoopes]

All good points. I appreciate everyone's feedback.

I was told to call my area's Substation to see if they can do regular patrols. I've left a message, we'll see how it goes.
If not, I will probably go through Code Compliance to see what they can do.

As for befriending them (which is also a good point), when this first started happening, I was friendly with one of the people. Unfortunately, he started asking me for money when I would get home from work. He isn't around anymore, but it's not a door I really want to open again.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Dizzyswoopes

All good points. I appreciate everyone's feedback.

I was told to call my area's Substation to see if they can do regular patrols. I've left a message, we'll see how it goes.
If not, I will probably go through Code Compliance to see what they can do.

As for befriending them (which is also a good point), when this first started happening, I was friendly with one of the people. Unfortunately, he started asking me for money when I would get home from work. He isn't around anymore, but it's not a door I really want to open again.

Fair enough. We had something similar and eventually had to start being rude to get him to back off. Good luck.

[Usnax2]

Ignorance and convenience may be a factor here as well for your neighbors. Maybe put the non-emergency line on a flyer (format it so you have a few mini-flyers on each page) and hand them out to your neighbors. Mention the loiterers and how it's affecting the neighborhood and suggest they tape the number inside a kitchen cabinet.

[Dizzyswoopes]

So, little update:

I was able to make a report with the Central Substation requesting additional patrol in the area. They stated they can submit the request and the police will patrol if not busy with other calls and such. Which is reasonable to me of course. I do understand there are other more important things for the police to do.

However, it didn't seem to help as just last week, I had to call 3 times in one evening to get the same people to leave the area. They were becoming louder as the evening went by. Today, there is about 8 people just staring at me as I get out of my car when I arrive home. I've also witnessed patrol cars driving by without intervening, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt in thinking maybe they were on their way somewhere else more important.

After the incident last week, I wrote another email to District 1 explaining the situation. I was contacted by one of the representatives and I was able to voice my concerns over the phone. She did say they would go by the area to check it out. If there was any undesirable behavior going on at the time of their visit, I'm not sure, but she did say she would reach back out to me. She also said, they have gotten other reports of the same thing from other people. So I'm glad I'm not alone.

I'm going to keep fighting the good fight a little bit longer.