Greenville, which is in western Ohio just west of Piqua (Darke County) will try out a system by which users will be billed a fee for police and fire responses. The practice will begin on Nov. 1.
The Daily Advocate reports "The amount of the fees is based on how many vehicles and personnel respond to an incident. For instance, it will reportedly cost those involved in the incident $154 for each police vehicle responding, $49 per officer and $250 per fire vehicle."
Interestingly, it is not the citizens who will be billed directly but rather the insurance companies. According to the article, insurance companies are willing to absorb small losses (as would be predicted in a small city like Greenville) but will pass large ones onto policyholders.
3 comments:
I know that journalist... kinda weird that I found his article this way.
That plan just seems like privatization to me - having an individual (yes, the cost will be passed on) pay for a public service.
Great... so if you're broke you might not be able to call the cops. Brilliant.
Well, I think the idea is that no one will ever be broke enough, technically. By "soft billing" through the insurance companies, citizens will pay for services through their premiums. If their premiums get too high, then they'll have to cancel insurance, which means they'll have to give up the house or car, so they won't be calling 911 over them anymore, anyway.
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