Crossville officials have launched a coordinated effort involving codes enforcement, police, and fire departments to remove homeless encampments from private property by leveraging city maintenance ordinances.
The Codes Department reported 60 property maintenance cases this fiscal year, with a specific focus on identifying encampments on large parcels of land. Crossville Codes Director Carl Kerley said the strategy relies on notifying property owners of code violations to gain permission for law enforcement to trespass individuals.
“The police notifying us about those has really helped out because they’re the ones that get called in the fire department to a degree getting called out to these places where people have medical emergencies and stuff like that,” Kerley said.
Officials noted there are currently 19 open cases, five of which specifically target encampments. The process involves sending certified letters to landowners, who often do not know their property is being occupied, warning them of potential fines if the issue is not resolved.
“So my guys will text me, the one down past the hospital was a text message originally with the grid coordinates of where it was at,” a police official said. “So guys are passing it along in their emails, and then we’re emailing codes and they’re starting investigation.”
Once a case is opened, the city provides property owners with a survey and QR code to officially request police enforcement. This legal step allows officers to remove unauthorized individuals without violating civil rights.
“The problem is that when they move from one parcel to another parcel with a different owner, we want to make sure that we’re not violating anybody’s civil rights by saying, ‘Hey, you’re not welcome here, you need to go,’ because that would be a case of argument coming in,” the codes official said.
The initiative addresses a gap where police previously struggled to act on large tracts of land without explicit owner permission. The collaboration aims to speed up a process that previously took months, such as a prior incident near the railroad tracks.
“I just like to see y’all working together,” a council member said. “I know there’s some initial frustration from some business owners, but I think all in all it’s been very positive, so keep up the good work y’all.”
Officials discussed potential technical solutions for logging bans on properties without physical addresses, such as using grid coordinates, to ensure dispatchers can track restricted areas.