Nuisance Abatement

The Nuisance Abatement Program was adopted by the City of Hot Springs and the Hot Springs Police Department in September 2003 and is a cooperative effort of many city departments including Code Compliance, Property Maintenance, the Police Department and the City Attorney’s Office. The program was instituted to help combat the sale of drugs in our neighborhoods and it also addresses other nuisance activity within the city such as prostitution, the illegal sale of alcohol, and other acts of disobedience that have the potential to negatively impact otherwise safe and peaceful environments.

When a site has been determined to be a nuisance, civil action can be taken against the owner of the property and/or any person facilitating the nuisance. The city can elect to request a restraining order against the property that gives the police the authority to immediately evict all persons within that structure and board up the windows and doors.

This program has also been used to increase the Police Department’s involvement with landlords in our community. There are services and literature available through the Nuisance Abatement Office to assist local landlords with screening/background checks of tenants, lease agreements, evictions, educational information regarding drug manufacture & drug sales and guidance on both landlord and tenant rights according to state law.

The Nuisance Abatement Office is a part of the Criminal Investigations Division. Detective Chris Shoemaker leads the Nuisance Abatement program and he can be contacted at the HSPD by one of the methods shown on the right of this page. If he happens to be out of the office conducting an investigation please leave him a voicemail because your concerns about nuisance issues that affect our community are very important to us.