Councilmember Michael Julian Bond said long-time, elderly homeowners in parts of Districts 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 have reported repeated anonymous housing-code complaints that coincide with aggressive offers from investors.

"It is suspicious," Bond said during the Public Safety & Legal Administration Committee meeting, arguing that repeated anonymous complaints could be used to "induce people to sell their property." He asked why complainants can file anonymously and what the city can do to protect residents.

Amber Ray Robinson of the City of Atlanta's Department of Law responded that the city accepts anonymous complaints for both 911 and housing-code reports and that the ability to reverse-engineer complainant identity is largely a technological, not a legal, constraint. "There is no requirement that any complaint be anonymous," Robinson said, but she added that the city will accept anonymous reports rather than refuse them.

Robinson suggested one possible statutory fix: amending the city's commercial-harassment ordinance (sec. 106-86) to explicitly include filing false housing-code complaints as a form of harassment. She noted filing knowingly false complaints can also violate state criminal statutes if the filer can be traced.

Code enforcement staff explained how the department treats "other" and "highly hazardous" complaint categories and described their reinspection process. Staff said inspectors are encouraged to be proactive and that inspections reported to the committee include initial inspections, reinspections, and court reinspections.

Councilmembers pressed for administrative changes, including systems that assign a tracking number to anonymous tips (so staff can follow up without publishing complainant identity) similar to existing city tip systems.

The exchange did not include a formal vote. Members requested follow-up work on (1) technology options to allow traceable anonymous reporting and (2) potential ordinance language to criminalize coordinated or false complaint campaigns when evidence supports such prosecution.