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Illicit drug activity is evidently so widespread in Tucson that people throughout the city are willing to take dangerous risks to control it.

Drugs and violence frequently run together, however, and citizen intervention can lead to unexpected consequences, including death.

Which is why it was a surprise to learn that some residents are trying to retake their neighborhoods by taking actions best left to police.

A story in Sunday's Star said some residents have been borrowing a digital video camera from Councilman Steve Leal's office to record suspected drug deals. They feel safer standing behind a drape and videotaping suspicious activity next door than calling 911, Leal said.

All calls to 911 are public records. The information is available to anybody who goes to the Police Department and presents a valid identification. A dealer who suspects he's been reported can send a friend or distant relative to request the records, making the tipster vulnerable to reprisals.

Leal said his office does not ask or tell citizens to videotape what they consider suspicious activity. He said constituents asked him to get the camera.

He said in the Vistas, the neighborhood east of Campbell Avenue and south of 36th Street, people who called police were told it would be easier if they had more specific information.

"They said we want to do something to help, and they feel using a camera is less risk than calling 911 and having a police car show up outside your door," Leal said.

John Barrios, former vice president of the Las Vistas Neighborhood Association, said, "People had approached me about the problem and I met with the police about us getting a video camera. The police said it's a good idea but it's very risky and we don't encourage it. But they said it's not illegal and nobody can stop you."

Barrios said the police department wouldn't provide him a camera but told him Leal's office probably had one. He said the neighbors approached Leal and eventually used the camera, "but the pictures didn't come out good."

Often, citizens don't know how vulnerable they are. In the last few months, residents on the West Side sent e-mails to Councilman Jose Ibarra's office complaining of luxury cars, in one case a Lamborghini, showing up all night long for brief visits to a house not far from Ibarra's.

They suspected drug deals and said so in their e-mails. Ibarra subsequently was told by the City Attorney's Office that all e-mails sent to the ward office were a public record. Residents were exposing themselves to potential reprisals without knowing it.

Ibarra phoned his constituents to tell them what he'd been told and has been discussing with the City Attorney's Office alternative methods of reporting suspicious drug activity that would offer anonymity to the tipsters.

Such a system already exists, however, through the Pima County Attorney's 88-Crime Program. Anonymous calls can be made to 88-CRIME and, a spokesperson said, they are not public records.

Suspicious drug activity has been observed in neighborhoods throughout the city. Council member Nina Trasoff said her office has received sporadic calls and e-mails.

"People can call the ward office and we can call the cops for them," she said. "My feeling is we have a highly skilled, trained police force. Those are the people we should be turning to."

We agree. There is no perfect solution to crime, but residents should always rely on the safest approach available. Call the cops or your ward office and have them contact the authorities. When dealing with suspicious drug activity, discretion is always the better part of valor.