Blogger Vexed by Police Red Tape

Every once in a while, someone will have a random encounter with government bureaucracy that raises deeper questions about just how efficiently tax dollars are being spent. The latest incident involves Jason Haap, the local blogger known as "the Dean of Cincinnati."

The strange turn of events began Jan. 7 when Haap's Westwood house was burglarized and a home alarm system notified the Cincinnati Police Department to respond. Someone smashed a back window and stole various items totaling about $2,700 and causing $200 in damage.

Police were dispatched to the house at 10:20 a.m. but didn't notice anything amiss until Haap's wife arrived there at 11:10 a.m. and pointed out the shattered window to them on a back porch. Later, Haap got a letter from the police department's False Alarm Reduction Unit (FARU), asking him to pay a $25 fine for an unfounded alarm call. Also, police told Haap that if he wanted to appeal the fine, he first would have to pay it and the amount would be refunded if the appeal were upheld.

Because the alarm was triggered by an actual break-in, Haap sought answers from City Hall about why he was fined and why police classified the call as unfounded. After Haap complained to the offices of two city council members, police contacted him and said FARU personnel misread the code, “AST,” on a police report. Although the code means, “assist,” FARU thought it read, “all was secure.”

Haap, though, wanted more information. He asked for copies of the reports, along with the names and badge numbers of officers who responded. A FARU officer replied that, due to a technical glitch, he could neither e-mail nor print the reports but he would have them for Haap in a few days.

Several days later after no response, Haap asked again and this time got an e-mail from Ellie Topham, director of the police department’s Finance Management Section. She told Haap the earlier officer was incorrect, and the mix-up was due to “new employees and a new dispatch system,” who misinterpreted what the codes meant.

“The technician incorrectly assumed that it was a false alarm since there was nothing in the transcript to suggest otherwise. The current format of the information we receive makes it very difficult to determine the order of closure. We are working to resolve the format issues,” Topham wrote.

“The issue was not a matter of not knowing what AST stands for, it was an issue of not researching the information completely to find what the actual disposition of the call was,” she added. “As I told you this morning, I have addressed this issue with the False Alarm Reduction Unit staff.”

Haap criticized the procedures and how police handled the situation, wondering if someone who wasn’t a well-known City Hall critic would’ve been able to get the report changed without first paying the fine.

Moreover, Haap wonders how motivated officers were to investigate the crime scene. While at the scene, officers allegedly told Haap’s wife they thought it a false alarm because burglaries rarely happen in that subdivision. The comments make Haap think police were predisposed to issue a false alarm without fully investigating.

“It should not be this complicated to find out where a mistake occurred,” Haap said. “I feel like, for whatever reason, they do not want me to know specifically who made the error. They just want me to know that a ‘false alarm’ has not been charged to my address.”

In fact, when the police department began charging higher fines for false alarms a few years ago, some business owners alleged it was done merely to generate more revenue. At the least, Haap's situation makes one question whether the process is purposely complicated to discourage appeals.

— Kevin Osborne

Comments

[Anonymous]

Haap has a lot of free time in his hands. Cops respond to so many false alarms that they are predisposed to think that nearly every home alarm run is a false alarm. It's rarely anything else.

[Political Junkie]

I don't think it's fair to accuse Haap of having too much "free time." How much does the CPD collect in unfair fees and fines each year simply because most people won't go to all the trouble to sort it out?

In this case, I think Haap is doing a public service.

[The Dean of Cincinnati]

I am a crime victim, and I deserve to be served by the police whose salaries I pay. Maybe if they treated my alarm like a real robbery, the suspect running through backyards with my stuff would have been spotted and apprehended.

[Not the Mamma Cass!]

Typical Dean: wants a name to blame instead of a problem to solve.

[Haap's a Hack]

You have to first pay your taxes in order to claim to "pay the police's salary". Jason Haap is a deadbeat, atheist pseudo-intellectual bum who has slammed the CPD & city government for years, and now wants their help. Boo hoo, cry me a river. It's another Scandal Of The Year Of The Day for Jason Hack and his little website.

[The Dean of Cincinnati]

I am neither a deadbeat, nor an atheist. My taxes are current. I wonder why CityBeat is posting such lies in their comments.