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If Greensboro police want to shut down nightclubs where crimes occur, they shouldn’t wait for the district attorney’s help.

The state’s public-nuisance law gives cities as much authority as it allows DA’s offices to initiate civil actions against establishments where trouble frequently occurs.

Police Chief Tim Bellamy told the City Council at its emergency meeting Tuesday that officers have asked District Attorney Doug Henderson to launch legal proceedings against Studio 508 on Teague Street and Lost Dimensions on Farragut Street but Henderson refuses.

That prompted an angry reaction from Councilman Robbie Perkins, who said Henderson should explain why he’s "backed off."

Henderson’s answer: The city’s legal staff should do it.

In an interview Wednesday, Bellamy said his department has asked the City Attorney’s Office but was told it couldn’t help. Later Wednesday, Deputy City Attorney Becky Jo Peterson-Buie said she had no knowledge of that but added: "If the police department requires our assistance, we will be happy to help in any way."

That should have been communicated sooner.

Contact with the state’s Alcohol Law Enforcement agency would be wise, too. The same law that authorizes cities to initiate nuisance-abatement suits also permits police to ask ALE for assistance. The city hasn’t made a request, said Alan Fields, supervisor for ALE’s Greensboro district office.

Other cities, including Raleigh and Durham, have successfully taken action that led to public-nuisance closings. But in Guilford County, former District Attorneys Horace "Jim" Kimel and Stuart Albright played leading roles in padlocking establishments in High Point and Greensboro.

By law, suits are filed in Superior Court, with the complaining agencies submitting evidence alleging that "repeated acts which create and constitute a breach of the peace" take place at the targeted business. If a judge agrees, he or she can order it closed.

Bellamy sees a pattern of escalating trouble at such places: fights, stabbings, shootings, then killings.

Fields agrees. He worked for several years on these cases across the state.

"I’ve seen the worst of the worst," he said, adding that closing them often decreases crime throughout the community as owners of other establishments, fearing similar action, "tend to clean up their own act."

Without using the public-nuisance law in the past, "I’m convinced we would have had people killed," Perkins said at Tuesday’s meeting.

People are being killed now — two outside Jabs Ultra Bar on West Lee Street Dec. 2. The owners of any establishment where a pattern of crime exists can be taken to court.

Greensboro’s apparent confusion was holding up action. While the district attorney’s support would be welcome, the city can and should move on its own.