Posted on 01/23/2008 3:40:47 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Police to Public: Bug Us Too Often, Expect a Bill
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage police have begun sending bills to people if officers have to make more than eight trips per year to their homes.
The first homeowner to be billed under a law that allows police to charge people got a tab for $23,000 last week.
Police have been called to the home dozens of times since last summer and 10 times so far this year, they said.
An ordinance that took effect in 2002 calls for taxpayers to pay for the first eight police responses to a home in a year. After that, the homeowner may be charged $500 per visit, what police estimate it costs to pay officers and maintain equipment for a single call.
"We're trying to tell homeowners that if you're having an excessive amount of calls to your residence, you need to take responsibility for those calls," said Anchorage police Sgt. Denny Allen. "We're not encouraging people not to call the police for valid reasons."
Some problem homes are getting 90 or more calls a year, he said.
Police did not begin enforcing the ordinance until last summer. Getting police to do so was "like changing a battleship in midcourse," said Assemblyman Allan Tesche, who sponsored the law.
"The intent was to give the police an extra tool to be used against crack houses, drug houses and general public nuisances that are generating an inordinate number of police calls," Tesche said. "At some point, a city can and should start charging for overuse of its police department."
The ordinance does not affect businesses and excludes calls for medical emergencies and domestic violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
don't really know what this is about.
It sounds like the Police don’t get to do any police work because they are constantly being called to domestics at certain addresses.
I may concede the point if the money is actually returned to the taxpayers who pay for the police.
Otherwise, there are numerous laws to deal with habituals. - Enforce them.
This guy actually thinks that people are going to pay for the privilege of getting busted. In the case of Tammy Miller, who has had at least 46 responses to her home in the past year, the town council thinks that seizing a rental home will somehow make it better.
Lemme guess: Ms. Miller is some kind of section 8 tenant and the property owner can’t evict her, because the government would fight the case. So the town screws the investor in order to make up for a failed system.
Uhhh... how is that going to work? Somehow I don't think the cops are going to get many calls regarding these places if someone who calls 911 knows they might have to pay between $500 and $23000 a pop.
Ms. Miller is the homeowner, according to the article.
The neighbors are calling the cops, not the tenants or the homeowner.
It's the homeowner who's liable for the calls, not the neighbors who call to complain about the drunken, all-night partying, etc.
If the one doing the calling is not charged, then this is worthless. A vengful neighbor could call the police on your home 9 or 10 times for nuisance reasons and get you charged.
You’re confusing people with too many facts.
I used to work in EMS. I could tell stories. There are people who love the sound of sirens coming to their house.
My son, a cop and a member of this forum responded to a 911 call from a 13 year old girl who said she and her 19 year old brother were home alone and he was hitting her, then she hung up.
He had thrown a french fry across the table and hit her on the arm.
:-)
It seems as if they've allowed for that possibility.
False alarms and receipts of false information do not count against a homeowner unless the reports were initiated by the owner or an occupant.
The police should arrest your neighbor for harassment.
You have my sympathies for having a nutjob as a neighbor.
It’s keeping them from writing tickets and generating cash for the towns.
assault with a salted weapon.
Uniformed social workers
Can't you simply park on the lawn? :)
How do they propose to get $23,000 from people who don’t have two nickles to rub together?
(”We don’t care if you pay it, we’re going to get that money somehow,” he said.) This says it all: revenue generation. I wonder if the foreclosing bank will have to pay the $23,000 since the city has placed a lien against the house.
Put a lien on the house
What’s really funny is at first we in the cul de sac didn’t know who was making the calls and no one was speaking to anyone else. Then one day the cops came to talk to us about my husband’s truck in the street and walked across the circle to another neighbor to talk about their car in the street. We were all working outside and came together to talk after the cop left, trying to figure out who called the police. All of us denied calling except one neighbor who kept ranting about everybody parking in the street and junk in the driveway. Bingo.
That’s what I mentioned, a lien. How does a mortage lender become liable for a fine given to a homeowner? We aren’t talking about a mechanics lien, but a fine that the city seeks to collect through a lien on the house from which the homeowner has been dispossessed.
Our system of laws is so convoluted that almost anything you do can be illegal.
He had thrown a french fry across the table and hit her on the arm.
I hope he used his taser on both of them.
Okay, now they have to have a similar rule for emergency rooms.
Hahahaha. Sorry, that's funny.
I've had my share of psycho-neighbor experiences too.
I was just pointing out that the Anchorage police seem to have allowed for the psycho-neighbor possibility.
The Police have a valid point here. Many calls are for repeated alarms being tripped. The establishment owners are warned to repair defective alarms and they don’t. Many people call just to talk to a police officer over a mundane matter. Many think the police are a free taxi service. The effect of this could easily involve a life or death call such as a baby choking or someone trapped in a burning car. Needless to say if one of our loved ones needed emergency service we’d want the police response without delay.
Police where I live get 100 or more private security alarm calls per week. If it is marked false, the business or homeowner is sent a bill for responding to the call.
I can’t remember the amount billed.
“What do the police do when they are not doing police work?”
Why, they sit around eating donuts, yell at little old ladies, hide behind signs waiting for unsuspecting citizens to speed by so they can write out lots of wrongly deserved tickets, shoot friendly dogs, take bribes, nap, and just generally waste hardworking taxpayers dollars. I have more stupid answers to stupid questions, if you’re interested.
But let's say you have a psycho neighbor. *Then* what? As I understand it, my neighbor can call 100 times a year, complaining that my dog is barking or that my stereo is blasting and *I'll* have to pay the bill.
And *that* is why we live in 8.6 acres in Texas! :-) (We're building our house *in the middle*! lol!)
DING, DING, DING!
We have a winner folks!
Sure. speaking of stupid, what do you see when you look in the mirror?
WHat about a lien like a Homeowner’s Association puts in place if you violate oneof their rules? Just a thought
I think they can level the fines according to the association by-laws, but I don’t think they can levy the fines against the lender if the homeowner defaults on the loan.
I hear you, buthere has got to some legal angle to hold them accountable.
This seems to be much the same as cameras at stop lights; revenue generation on any pretext.
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