Maybe I’m missing something. We manifestly have a crime problem involving rental properties in Charlotte. And the way CMPD wants to attack this:

  • A: Greatly intensify police presence in high crime locations
  • B: Make property crime a law enforcement a priority
  • C: License landlords under penalty of fines

CMPD seems to think that under a licensing regime city government can force property owners to spend money to “cooperate” with CMPD. Specifics are scarce — as they usually are with these kinds of proposals — but one would assume that would involve better lighting and fencing and other passive security measures. Uh, good luck with that.

Suppose the property owner just taps out. Says they’re done. I thought Charlotte lacked enough cheap housing. So CMPD wants to make it harder to keep units on the market? Besides, where do the landlords get the money for the fix-ups CMPD would like to mandate? Or the background checks I also surmise CMPD would like to impose on renters? Higher rents, maybe? It is not like city and county property taxes have not gone up in recent years, in large part the cover-story went, to pay for public safety. Now CMPD comes back and says landlords have to pay yet more in time and money.

The suppressed premise in this proposal is that the owners of these properties are making out like bandits and are sitting on tons of cash. I seriously doubt that is the case. There is also another very weird claim being advanced by CMPD.

Police claim that they are having trouble getting in contact with the property owners when there is a problem with a unit or units. I thought that is what property records are for — somebody is the owner of record. Or is the claim that the county records are wrong? In that case enforce that law don’t come crying for another one.

Finally, there is just something fundamentally amiss with putting more conditions on what a property owner can do with his or her property. That is not the problem here. The problem is a lack of will to prosecute and jail repeat violent offenders. That may not be all CMPD’s doing — or even mostly. But it is surely not the fault of Charlotte’s landlords either.