Alton Police's tenacity with neighborhood communication pays in Drug Unit arrests

ALTON - For multiple months, the Alton Police Department has worked to get the community more involved in assisting with information about criminal activities.

The diligence of the officers and the administration appears to be paying significant dividends. Neighbors provided information to Alton’s Nuisance Abatement Task Force about what they suspected was a drug house and it resulted in arrests of two men Tuesday morning.

The arrests were made in the 400 block of Jefferson Avenue in Alton.

Alton Police Chief Jake Simmons said his Drug Unit established a surveillance of the house and did an undercover drug buy to ensure what was actually transpiring within the home. The Madison County State’s Attorney’s office is expected to release charges in this case sometime today or Thursday. Simmons say at this time what drug or drugs were taken in the arrest, but that it was “a controlled substance.”

The Alton Police Department is represented within the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System and those officers and others within the system carried out the arrests.

“This all started when we had several complaints up there from neighbors,” Simmons said. “The complaints started at the end of July and in August we had a problem solving meeting with officers who expressed concerned about a drug house. Detectives did a lot of surveillance in the case and did an excellent job.”

Simmons commended the people in the neighborhood who came forward about the alleged activity within the house. He said from fall of last year, communication has immensely improved with the different neighborhoods in Alton. He urged others to come forward when they spot similar types of issues.

“People in that neighborhood are fed up with things that have been going on,” he said. “We take every complaint seriously. There were people cheering and happy we solved the problem when we made the arrests.”

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