You cause problems and it’ll cost you in Anchorage.
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.”
At the Airport Heights home that was billed $23,000, calls were routinely for drugs, alcohol and disturbances, Allen said. Neighbors reported cars coming at all hours of night, with arguments in the yard and drunks urinating in the road.
Police sent the homeowner, Tammy Lynn Miller, 40, a warning notice in August. The calls for service persisted and on Thursday the city sent her the bill, Allen said.
Miller was arrested last week on charges of theft and forgery.
Her home is now boarded up being seized by the bank, Allen said. If she can’t pay the city’s bill, the ordinance calls for liens to be placed against the home until the city collects.
The ordinance does not affect businesses and excludes calls for medical emergencies and domestic violence. False alarms and receipts of false information do not count against a homeowner unless the reports were initiated by the owner or an occupant.
For rental properties, the owner is responsible for either controlling the tenants, evicting them or paying the bill, Tesche said. The police will first send a letter alerting the owner that fees are pending. The owner then has 30 days to correct the situation and halt the calls. After that, they’ll get the bill.
Why some people think they can use the local PD as their personal activity management office is beyond my comprehension. 46 responses to your residence, what this Miller broad’s home received is 45 too many. Hell, one is too many.
Lower my taxes by making the troublemakers pay.
Found at the SayAnything blog
I like this idea too, with one exception. Some take advantage of the system we have with excessive medical emergency calls too. Example …… we live in a Retirement Community of single family homes. A community where one household member must be 55 or over – not an assisted living arrangement of any kind, but consisting of active people still capable of doing for themselves. A couple years ago, a woman (who in some’s opinion never should’ve been OK’d to live here because of her health) moved in alone with family nearby, and because she was wheelchair bound and because she was a proud, I’ll show you type, continuously tried to get out of her chair and without fail always ended up on the floor, unable to get up. She was also a large woman, so calling a willing neighbor wasn’t sufficient to remedy the situation. Plus she was very demanding and outspoken. Consequently, it was the local fire districts engine and aid car that was dispatched to help her right herself. The fire district always came with a minimum of three people to assist her. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be summoned a couple times a day. One weekend we counted their presence at her home eight times ! Needless to say, over time, the fire chief and her family got involved and between them were able to convince her to do the right thing and sell her home and make other living arrangements. We know the chief did mention the liklihood of charging for further (mis-use) of their services and the lack of coverage for other serious needs that may arise while the staff was helping this woman. As a taxpayer alot of us here felt the family should have been more on the ball with this gal and that there were more pressing needs and uses for the districts resources.
So in a longwinded way all I’m trying to say is I feel there are ligitimate cases for charging for emergency medical services as well.
I made this very suggestion at a Chiefs meeting once, stop going to home alarm calls, anual cost to PD’s 7-10 million dollars in West WA alone each year. Go only after somebody reports a crime. Bascially alarm companies tell you, you are hiring the local PD as your private alarm response company. Stupid and mondo costly. The chiefs response was if they did that the poliico;s would just take the money away and spend it on welfare and getting re-elected….sigh