Simi Backs Billing for Unneeded Police Calls

SIMI VALLEY —  A proposal to bill Simi Valley residents who make frequent and unnecessary requests for police service has won City Council approval.

Council members voted Monday night to approve a proposed ordinance designed to cut the time police spend responding to calls at a handful of homes. Under the ordinance, if officers have to visit the same house for nonemergency problems more than five times in a year, the residents will be billed $55 for each subsequent visit.

Council members stressed that people who legitimately need police service--for example, domestic violence victims--would not be charged.

“If it’s life-threatening, if it’s a battered person, we’re going to go out there, we’re going to take care of them, and there won’t be a fine,” Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said.

The criteria for determining which calls are legitimate and which are a waste of officers’ time have not yet been determined, Mayor Greg Stratton said. Council members also requested that the Police Department create an appeals process for residents who believe they have been unfairly fined, he said.

A police study found that during 1995, officers were called out to 489 houses more than five times each. Those houses resulted in a total of more than 5,000 police visits, with officers spending an average of 22 minutes on each call, according to the study.