COLUMBUS, Ohio — At the Colonial Village Apartments, hundreds of units are damaged and dangerous. Crime scene tape is a regular sight at the east side complex.
There are so many calls to police, the safety of people who don't even live there is at risk. The complex is so bad, the city is stepping in to get answers or shut it down.
“As I was going through police reports, I kept seeing Rand Avenue, Rand Avenue, Rand Avenue,” said Assistant City Attorney Tiara Ross.
Columbus police have been called to the Colonial Village Apartments so many times, code enforcement is taking a look at every one of the 500 units in the complex. Columbus police are assisting, making sure the code enforcement officers are safe.
“We want to make sure places like this aren't a substantial drain on resources, so officers can get to where they need to be when they need to be there,” Ross said.
The city tells 10TV the apartment complex has the second-highest most violent crimes of any apartment complexes in the city. More than 500 violent crimes have happened there in the last year alone. That's in addition to 4,000 property crimes.
That pulls officers who could be helping others.
“if I have an emergency, but there's an officer here at Colonial Village, it may take them 10 or more minutes to get to me,” Ross said.
The city is stepping in and sending the message to the owner.
“We want landlords to understand we will hold you accountable,” said Department of Development Assistant Director Cynthia Rickman.
“We want to make sure we first give the landlord the opportunity to take heed of the recommendations that we are asking. We will consider and we are ready to file a lawsuit if we need to,” Ross said.