The hypocrisy of SF city government never ceases to amaze me. Department heads simply lie to the public and media and hope we believe them.
Paying for major damage done through police action isn’t what the public would want, however, Barthel said.
“It’s not the police department we’re talking about here, it’s the taxpayer,” he said. “I don’t think the taxpayers feel they should be liable for the damage done by a criminal.”
The ‘DAMAGE’ was done by your officers, not the criminal. Sure, he broke the door and the landlord should seek restitution on what HE damaged. But blowing out the windows was done by your officers. Also, I will never use the indoor pool, ice hockey center or tennis facilities, why should my taxdollars go towards facilities I will never use? Besides, if it is an insurance claim, that money comes from insurance, not the taxpayer. Do as the county does in these situations;
Some agencies have paid property owners for damage sustained during police action.
“We’ve had some situations where we’ve broken a window, and we’ve paid for the window,” said Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead. “We don’t stand there and immediately write a check, but if there’s an innocent person who suffers some damage, we work with our insurance carrier to cover the damage.”
Milstead cautioned that the standoff situation involved in the Graham case was unique.
“I can’t recall a case where we’ve had a person break into an innocent person’s home,” Milstead said.
The county has liability insurance for mistakes its employees might make, Commission Administrator Ken McFarland said, but he also couldn’t recall a comparable situation, either.
“If we feel there’s some liability on our part, we’d push it through,” McFarland said.
Why not turn in a claim? That’s what we have a risk management for, to handle these kind of situations. What’s the harm in filing the claim and seeing what happens? Once again, the city shows little respect for the little man in town. Plenty of money for TIFs to rich developers, to relocate the railroad (for rich developers) and multi-million dollar river greenway bulkheads (for rich developers) but scrounging up a measly $2,200 for property CITY EMPLOYEES damaged, NO WAY!
The theme for police in other cities is ‘to protect and to serve’. In Sioux Falls it’s ‘damage and distress’. The city is safe but citizens should be prepared to protect themselves from police.
Incidentally, there’s no appeal process and you can’t sue the city for damages. There’s no democracy inside city limits.
how do you know the city doesn’t submit it in their insurance policy anyway?