[LurkingPenguin]

> So I'm very sure that my most effective means of improving the situation is to put cameras on their affairs from my house and get all the other adjacent neighbors to do likewise. The dealers have felt the heat, and now their clients are normally more respectful and quiet, presumably at the prompting of the dealers.

Do you really believe this is going to be effective? In your scenario where the police are unresponsive to reports, what makes you think that they're suddenly going to care if you send them a bunch of surveillance video of illicit activity?

The drug dealers know when they're operating in safe territory. In places like San Francisco, people openly deal and use drugs on the street because they know that they are likely to get away with it.

I bet if you posed as a journalist, some of these people would even let you photograph their activities, all while flashing big smiles.

[tbihl]

I believe that my local police are merely ineffective. The San Francisco law enforcement situation is way further gone, by all accounts.