Charlotte plans to go after landlords of rental properties with some of the city’s highest reported instances of crimes in a program city officials tout as a way to fight crime.

The City Council recently approved the program even though Mayor Pat McCrory expressed doubts, calling it “a cover-up, a smokescreen, a mirage hiding a broken criminal justice system.”

The program, which debuts in June, will require landlords of rental homes and apartments that are in the top 4 percent of calls to police to meet with police and develop a plan to reduce crime at the property. Landlords who can’t reduce crime at their properties could be fined or see the apartments shut down. The program is expected to affect less than 0.5 percent of the city’s rental units.

“It’s the worst of the worst that will be falling into the mix,” said Ken Miller, deputy police chief for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

The new law has drawn criticism from legal advocates who fear that it could deter residents from reporting crime and from neighborhood activists who say it doesn’t go far enough. The three council members who voted against the ordinance, Michael Barnes, Warren Turner and Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx, had wanted the city to require all landlords to register their properties with the city. McCrory and six other council members voted for the law.

“It doesn’t give us all that we want,” said Dorothy Waddy, leader of the Clanton Park neighborhood in Southwest Charlotte. “The real estate companies have been very actively involved in not wanting all absentee landlords to sign up.” ~ Source: Lincoln Tribune