02/03/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 2/3/20114 David Mills, 3512 Dawn Drive. ~ Questioned police overtime and how that works writing tickets. He referred to an article in the Plain Dealer about the STOP program and the idea of a direct connection between law enforcement and compensation. He wondered who voted for the program. He believes the Police Department is being a fundraiser by writing tickets. He was given a ticket for changing lanes without signaling, and it cost $109. He looks at a North Olmsted police officer as someone who is trying to sabotage him. They sit in private driveways and parking lots waiting for people. He noted that North Olmsted writes many more tickets than our neighboring cities combined. Mr. Mills' comments spazked a long discussion by several members of Council. Councilman Gareau said the STOP program goes back several years. He supported it as the program was originally conceived as a means by which to get mare officers on the street without using the general fund budget. The idea was to put officers into particular trouble spots where we otherwise might not have the ability to do so. Councilman Dailey noted that Council did entertain a general discussion on the STOP program about two years ago. He has never been a huge supporter of the STOP program; however, the officers on the streets are doing the job that they are instructed to do. They are protecting the citizens by stopping people who aze breaking the law whether it is a traffic infraction or other. He sees both sides on this issue. Councilman Limpert said that he had voted against the program. The basic premise of it creates the perception, as Mr. Mills has, that our officers are just trying to raise revenue to pay extra overtime. From what he understands and research he has done on it, they have been doing an excellent job of restraining themselves of not trying to generate tickets. That was his concern when the program was set up-he believed any revenue should go into the general fund and then be reappropriated out. Councilwoman Kasler said she too had supported and helped initiate the program. She understands Mr. Mill's concerns that officers seem to be more prevalent. That actually was the idea of having this program so that we had more officers on the street-not just for traffic violations but to be used at other calls. This program has a lot of benefits to it as well that probably aren't as obvious to the people who get a ticket. But there have been many occasions where officers on the STOP program are the extra men an the street and are called off in emergency situations. They have participated in drug busts, have stopped stalking, have stopped some very serious and harmful criminal activity because they are the extra officers to be pulled of that duty to help out. The idea was to get more officers on the street to make the city safer. Obviously, one of the results of that is there are more officers, more presence; and, when traffic violations occur, there are more officers out thereto check an those violations and to cite those. If a citizen has concern about a violation, not being appropriate, that is a matter for the court. With regard to comment about it being a fundraiser, it's aself-supporting program. The revenues that come in from any violations that occur go back into the same STOP fund. This has eliminated a lot of pressure on the general fund to provide for equipment and other items that are needed in the Police Dept. that would otherwise be paid for by tax dollars. As stated earlier, the program was evaluated two years ago in an open forum. Pros and cons were discussed. At that time, it was an alert to the Police Chief to make sure that he checked on the overtime to be sure that it wasn't being abused in any way. They have put a check on that. If residents feel it would be necessary to re-evaluate 12