11-28-2006, 03:38 AM
Sun, Nov. 26, 2006
Cities charging for excess cop calls to recoup costs
KRISTEN REED - The Orlando Sentinel
DAYTONA BEACH - The empty beer cans, junky furniture and dilapidated appliances littering Daytona Beach Trailer Park are an invitation for prostitutes and drug dealers to set up shop.
For city government, the resulting code violations and frequent calls to law enforcement create an expensive nuisance.
In cities like Daytona Beach, the solution may be dusting off a rarely used law directed at property owners' checkbooks.
"This measure is to tell them, 'Hey, you're costing the city a lot of money' and make them pay for that service they are taking away from other parts of the city," Daytona Beach Officer Paul Stelter said.
The trailer park on North Beach Street has racked up the largest bill - $9,600 - since the police department started levying fees earlier this summer against those who create excessive calls for police.
Daytona Beach and Sanford are among the cities already using fines to make property owners clean up their acts.
Other agencies, including the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, think such policies deter residents from calling about problems.
A professor in public administration and policy said the ordinances may not recoup much money, but they do get violators to change their ways.
"It does send a message," said Lance deHaven-Smith with the Askew School for Public Policy and Administration at Florida State University.
He said the policies are gaining popularity as another tool for cities to combat crime and clean up the streets.
Daytona Beach's Stelter, one of two officers who handles his agency's nuisance calls, said the city has had a fee for excessive police calls on the books since the late 1980s "when spring break got out of control" - but was never used.
When Chief Mike Chitwood joined the force this summer, he saw the ordinance as another tool to clean up crime.
Once a property hits the magic number - 50 incidents or 35 man hours in six months, or 75 incidents or 50 man hours in a year's time - the owner can be fined $42 an hour for an officer's time, plus an administrative fee.
The agency isn't penalizing people who call for help or ask for extra patrols. They only calculate the calls that involve a violation of the law, such as reports of a drug deal, Stelter said.
Several businesses already have racked up fines exceeding $6,000.
At Daytona Beach Trailer Park, the officers are trying to work with the owners to find a solution.
"They want to clean up this property," Officer J.T. Thomas said.
A representative for the trailer park, Elaine Pugh, said the recent bill was a wake-up call for the owners.
"I'm sure they knew there was a problem," she said. "I'm not sure they were aware of how excessive it was."
She said police and code enforcement have offered several suggestions to help clean up the area, such as fencing the property, removing condemned trailers and banning outdoor drinking.
"We're trying to turn this place around," Pugh said. "It's going to be a long road . . . but as long as we work with the police and the city we can make it work.
"I just want their quality of life to be better than it is. No one should have to live with drug dealers, crack heads and prostitutes running around."
For problem properties that don't heed suggestions or fines, officers have another tool.
The city's nuisance abatement board can impose sanctions as severe as shutting down a business.
Already, officers say property owners are getting the message. The Mar-Lo Mart was a hot spot for drug dealing until the city closed it down for a month, Stelter said. Since it reopened, officers no longer see people hanging out in the parking lot.
The Streamline Hotel, where NASCAR was founded, was home to all sorts of criminal activity and had more than 100 code-enforcement violations. After being hit with a $9,000 fine and other sanctions, Stelter said, the owners cleaned it up and "haven't had any issues there lately."
While financial penalties might work in several areas, Seminole County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Lemma said his agency is going in another direction.
"We want to encourage people to contact the Sheriff's Office," he said. "The last thing we want to do is look at repeat calls for service as a negative thing."
The city of Sanford, however, implemented a measure similar to Daytona Beach's, which includes fining property owners after three police calls in a 30-day time frame.
The ordinance covers calls ranging from loud music to yard clutter to drug use.
I had never heard of this till today. I think I agree with Seminole on the issue, though I also see the point of why they would do that. There is an upside and a downside to everything though.
Cities charging for excess cop calls to recoup costs
KRISTEN REED - The Orlando Sentinel
DAYTONA BEACH - The empty beer cans, junky furniture and dilapidated appliances littering Daytona Beach Trailer Park are an invitation for prostitutes and drug dealers to set up shop.
For city government, the resulting code violations and frequent calls to law enforcement create an expensive nuisance.
In cities like Daytona Beach, the solution may be dusting off a rarely used law directed at property owners' checkbooks.
"This measure is to tell them, 'Hey, you're costing the city a lot of money' and make them pay for that service they are taking away from other parts of the city," Daytona Beach Officer Paul Stelter said.
The trailer park on North Beach Street has racked up the largest bill - $9,600 - since the police department started levying fees earlier this summer against those who create excessive calls for police.
Daytona Beach and Sanford are among the cities already using fines to make property owners clean up their acts.
Other agencies, including the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, think such policies deter residents from calling about problems.
A professor in public administration and policy said the ordinances may not recoup much money, but they do get violators to change their ways.
"It does send a message," said Lance deHaven-Smith with the Askew School for Public Policy and Administration at Florida State University.
He said the policies are gaining popularity as another tool for cities to combat crime and clean up the streets.
Daytona Beach's Stelter, one of two officers who handles his agency's nuisance calls, said the city has had a fee for excessive police calls on the books since the late 1980s "when spring break got out of control" - but was never used.
When Chief Mike Chitwood joined the force this summer, he saw the ordinance as another tool to clean up crime.
Once a property hits the magic number - 50 incidents or 35 man hours in six months, or 75 incidents or 50 man hours in a year's time - the owner can be fined $42 an hour for an officer's time, plus an administrative fee.
The agency isn't penalizing people who call for help or ask for extra patrols. They only calculate the calls that involve a violation of the law, such as reports of a drug deal, Stelter said.
Several businesses already have racked up fines exceeding $6,000.
At Daytona Beach Trailer Park, the officers are trying to work with the owners to find a solution.
"They want to clean up this property," Officer J.T. Thomas said.
A representative for the trailer park, Elaine Pugh, said the recent bill was a wake-up call for the owners.
"I'm sure they knew there was a problem," she said. "I'm not sure they were aware of how excessive it was."
She said police and code enforcement have offered several suggestions to help clean up the area, such as fencing the property, removing condemned trailers and banning outdoor drinking.
"We're trying to turn this place around," Pugh said. "It's going to be a long road . . . but as long as we work with the police and the city we can make it work.
"I just want their quality of life to be better than it is. No one should have to live with drug dealers, crack heads and prostitutes running around."
For problem properties that don't heed suggestions or fines, officers have another tool.
The city's nuisance abatement board can impose sanctions as severe as shutting down a business.
Already, officers say property owners are getting the message. The Mar-Lo Mart was a hot spot for drug dealing until the city closed it down for a month, Stelter said. Since it reopened, officers no longer see people hanging out in the parking lot.
The Streamline Hotel, where NASCAR was founded, was home to all sorts of criminal activity and had more than 100 code-enforcement violations. After being hit with a $9,000 fine and other sanctions, Stelter said, the owners cleaned it up and "haven't had any issues there lately."
While financial penalties might work in several areas, Seminole County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Lemma said his agency is going in another direction.
"We want to encourage people to contact the Sheriff's Office," he said. "The last thing we want to do is look at repeat calls for service as a negative thing."
The city of Sanford, however, implemented a measure similar to Daytona Beach's, which includes fining property owners after three police calls in a 30-day time frame.
The ordinance covers calls ranging from loud music to yard clutter to drug use.
I had never heard of this till today. I think I agree with Seminole on the issue, though I also see the point of why they would do that. There is an upside and a downside to everything though.