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Alex Cabrero ReportingThe best way to fight crime is to actually get out and fight it. A year-old program in Ogden has done just that.
Those in the program have seen a 12% reduction in crime, but the trick is, you have to be in the program. It involves apartment complex landlords, and so far, it has been such a success, even McGruff the Crime Dog would be wagging his tail.
Darin Deem, Owner, Brentwood Apartments: "This is a nice complex, newer that what we owned before."
When Darin Deem bought the Brentwood Apartments in Ogden eight years ago, hopefully he knew what he was getting into.
Darin Deem: "Every landlord can give you every story in the book. I mean, there's , we used to do so many evictions."
It was almost to the point where he was losing money.
Darin Deem: "When you have bad tenants, they just trash everything."
But in the past two years, things have certainly changed.
Darin Deem: "I never imagined that the profits would increase like they have."
During a news conference, Ogden mayor Matthew Godfrey talked about the city's success with the Good Landlord program and how the Brentwood Apartments is a good example.
Matthew Godfrey, Mayor of Ogden: "It costs us way more to provide public services to a rental unit than it does for a home-occupied unit."
Even Ogden's police chief agrees that apartments can cause a lot of problems.
Jon Greiner, Police Chief of Ogden: "We have apartment complexes in this community where we're responding 100 times a month."
With the Good Landlord program, a program unlike any other in the state, landlords are told they won't see any increase in their business license fees if they take a class. Deem wasn't so sure at first.
Darin Deem: "Halfway through the class, I finally decided, 'Hey, I'm learning a lot in this class. I think this is a good program.'"
Now, by better screening applicants and doing more thorough background checks, there is less crime in apartments participating in the program. That allows officers to respond elsewhere.
Darin Deem: "I think it's a huge improvement. When you have good tenants, they pay their rent, you have less turnover, it's a win situation for the city. It's been a really good program."
With that program, landlords are trained to have better screened applicants through background checks, how to watch for criminal behavior, and how to prevent crime in the first place. Again, landlords participating in this program have seen a 12% reduction in crime.
