City Council member Adam Hornung wants to save two and a half police officer positions that would otherwise be cut by Mayor Beutler's proposed budget. That 2.5 officer equivalent would come from no longer having LPD write reports for non-injury accidents. Officers would still respond when necessary, but they wouldn't write the full reports that insurance companies use when determining fault, setting payout amounts, and deciding on rate increases.
So far I haven't seen Hornung describe where he would get the money to pay for the officers. You can safely bet that he won't want to raise taxes, so that leaves salaries and City programs as the likely source of the money. He'll likely complain about any non-contractually-obligated raises, for example. I'm not sure if the full $150,000 (give or take) could be made up from those raises or not.
I'm not sure what I think about the end of non-injury accident reports. I disagree with Mr. Hornung that the reports represent a mandatory component of public safety in Lincoln. Non-injury reports are merely "nice-to-haves", not "must-haves". Nobody's health is threatened by Beutler's proposal. There are, however, some financial implications to consider. Those involved in non-injury accidents are likely to face higher insurance costs than they otherwise would have seen; in fact, it's possible that all Lincoln drivers will face slightly higher premiums as a result of this policy change. I don't know that that will happen, merely that it could.
I was involved in a non-injury accident back in high school. No report was written because it occurred on private property. Boy, a report sure would have been nice. It was the sort of accident in which fault wasn't immediately obvious based on the damage caused. Yet any witness could have told you that my vehicle wasn't even moving in the moments leading up to impact! Fortunately, my insurance company sided with me and I suffered no financial harm. Perhaps I got lucky. Perhaps my Hot Wheels recreation of the accident was just that convincing. All in all, although a report might have made the process a bit smoother, the absence of a report wasn't the end of the world. That's my lone anecdote for you.
Are non-injury accident reports important enough to warrant saving at the cost of other budget items? If so, what should go?
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“Are non-injury accident reports important enough to warrant saving at the cost of other budget items? If so, what should go? “
I’m going to have to say that yes, I do think they are important. I’ve been in 2 accidents. One where a police officer came out (public property) and one when they did not (private). I know that I was not at fault, even a little bit, but because of who the other person had for insurance, I was faulted 20%. From what I’ve understood, when it’s on private property and no report is there, this company (large old boy insurance company) will use it to their advantage to get out of 100% responsibility.
I can see this happening more… and that means that we will have to pay for something that wasn’t our fault.
To clarify… the accident where a cop came out it was my insurance vs. Big Boy Insurance. The second accident was my insurance and the same Big Boy Insurance, and I was faulted 20%. Neither accident was my fault (and I’m not just saying that :lol)
Nice to see Councilman H. looking out for the public good for a change… but I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. As you ask, what would he cut?
I don’t quite get Hornung’s logic. From what I’ve heard him state in the media, he thinks we need to keep the officers because Lincoln has fewer officers than similar-sized cities. Perhaps LPD is more efficient than those cities? Do we have a higher crime rate than those cities? Will retaining those officers to cover non-injury accidents help make Lincoln safer? I’m not opposed to keeping them. I’m not opposed to cutting them. I just don’t think we make those decisions based on what other similar-sized cities do.
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