WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Wichita’s police chief wants to crack down on problem properties, the ones that get a lot of calls for police.

One such property, a motel on Broadway, has had 193 police calls since the beginning of this year. Police also have been called out to an apartment complex on E. Pawnee St. 244 times since January 1st.

Chief Gordon Ramsay says each call requires two officers to respond to each call, and that each of those calls take up about two hours of those officers time.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Ramsay proposed the council adopt an ordinance that would crack down on problem properties where officers respond multiple times.

“That’s how serious it is,” Ramsay said. “So, what happens is that our officers get tied up with these problem properties over and over again and become the defacto property managers, whether it’s a rental property or a commercial business.”

Ramsay says all the calls to problem properties are hurting his department’s efforts in other areas of town.

“Meanwhile, the other neighbors in other parts of the city are suffering because police officers response times are not where we like, and we’re not able to do the community policing and proactive work we would like to do because of these ongoing problem cases.”

Ramsay said his solution would be to have the property owners cover the costs of those calls.

“The recommendation would be that every officer that is sent to this property, the manager would pay for the officer’s time as well as the vehicle’s time on the property.”

Some council members were concerned that an evicted tenant would just take those problems elsewhere. But, Ramsay said his plan may change the way those tenants act.

“The problem tenants have learned this behavior won’t be tolerated and they learn to change their behavior,” Ramsay said.

Under the ordinance, the landlord would have six months to come up with an abatement plan after the third violation. If not, they’ll be fined on the fourth offense.

The city council will need to approve the plan.