Is It That Time Of Year Already?

PRIDE (Prevention Resources & Information on Drug Education) Inc. just sent out the 2011 Metro Area Prom and Graduation schedules to all area law enforcement agencies.  In addition to the dates, times and locations of proms and graduation ceremonies, it also lists the locations of post-prom celebration events.  We cops like to use these things as kind of a roadmap of the stars to figure out when and where we'll concentrate our forces and turn our attention to youth revelers who might take things a bit too far.  The last thing we want to do is ruin someone's special night, but we will if we have to-----because the stakes are too high.  Tragedies surrounding underage drinking still occur far too frequently, even though the word has never gotten out more.  Several years ago we began airing a stark music video created by the band Simple Plan on our local cable access channel (Channel 18 on Cox in Papillion).  Word had it that the band wrote the song after a close friend was killed by a drunk driver.  Although the message was brutally unpleasant, I received more thanks for putting it on than any other thing we've ever done before or since.  So we'll do it again this year, in hopes that at least one kid out there will modify his or her behavior as a result of seeing it.  Kids:  Think about how much of a hassle it would be to work your way through the courts for an underage drinking arrest while you are also trying to get ready for college, military or whatever else you want to do after graduation.  Parents:  Take time to hassle your kids just a little bit by keeping track of what they are doing, who they are doing it with, and where they are doing it.  The old hippie saying used to be never trust anyone over the age of 30.  During this time of year and for this purpose I ask you to flip that one just a bit to never fully trust anyone under the age of 19.  Please be safe and smart because we'll be out there party crashing.  

On-Street Parking

Now and then I'm asked why certain laws are on the books.  As far as state laws are concerned, I rarely know the reasoning of our legislators in Lincoln.  They write'em and we enforce'em.  But when I'm asked why we've adopted a specific city code, I can usually come up with a reason (or at least an excuse).  Recently, someone asked why we have a city code which limits on-street parking to a maximum of 24 hours.  Quite honestly, the best I could come up with was "because we've always limited on-street parking to a maximum of 24 hours."  Not exactly a brilliant response. 

At tomorrow night's (March 1, 2011) Papillion City Council meeting, Ordinance #1604 will be introduced.  If ultimately approved, on-street parking for up to 72 hours (except where otherwise posted) will be permitted in our fine city on or about May 1, 2011.  I hope the ordinance is adopted, and here's why.

1. The current restriction can't be found in city code.  The 24 hour parking rule was enacted by Resolution #678 in 1992.  Actions instituted by resolutions are not integrated into city code, although they have the same force of law.  Adoption of this ordinance will put parking time limits into Chapter 190 of our city code, which is accessible by all our citizens.
2. The current restriction empowers the unneighborly neighbor to become even more unneighborly.  Believe it or not, more than a few of our residents call law enforcement at the 24 hour and 1 minute mark when the person living across the street leaves his/her car parked on the street.  Usually the dispute with the person living across the street has nothing to do with parking, but our law provides an excellent avenue for anonymous revenge (and just one more reason for the responding officer to be asked "Don't you cops have anything better to do?).  If the proposed change happens, at least Mrs. or Mr. Kravitz will need to pay attention to the neighbors parking habits for 3 whole days before calling us.
3. It will give us one less reason to nag our teenagers.  I remember speaking with one frustrated resident who had an unneighborly neighbor who loved turning him in for parking too long on the street.  He explained that he had 4 high-school and college-aged kids who each had their own set of wheels.  Add those to he and his wife's vehicles, and he had to worry about the docking of 6 cars in a manner that wouldn't tick off his unneighborly neighbor.  Although he tried to enact a rotation schedule that would keep Johnny Law off his back, he said he had a tough enough time just remembering his kid's names (and tuition payment schedules).  I can relate to his lament.  Hopefully, he'll soon only need to nag his kids every 72 hours (about parking anyway).
4. Decriminalization of the weekend getaway.  Now if someone leaves town from Friday to Sunday and forgets to put their other car in the driveway, they don't need to worry about coming back to a parking ticket slapped on their windshield.

Of course, there is justification to place time limits for on-street parking.  Most noteably, we don't want to devote public space for the indefinite storage of junked or inoperable vehicles.  If Ordinance #1604 is approved, the change will put us in line with most other municipalities in the Omaha metro.  Then when I'm asked why we have a 72 hour on-street parking restriction, I can reply "because everyone else has a 72 hour on-street parking restriction."  Ah, what a brilliant response!       

Snow Emergency Headaches

A snow emergency was declared last night and lasts until later today.  The most obvious purpose of the declaration is to have vehicles removed from public streets so our overworked public works employees can plow them clear.  One vehicle left on the street sticks out like a sore thumb and requires an additional pass of the plow once finally removed from the street.  In addition, the exercise of responding to complaints and identifying and locating the owner ties up our patrol officers for long (and often unnecessary) periods of time.  Once the emergency is declared, all vehicle owners are required to remove their vehicles from the streets within 6 hours.  If the vehicle is not removed within the prescribed time, our officers have the authority to have them towed (at owner's expense) to the Sarpy County Towlot.  Knowing that this option doesn't make us very popular, we do everything we can to locate someone who can move it off the street.  Often this is made more difficult because of out-of -date license registration information.  With the prospect of more snow on the way, please help us remain popular by complying with snow emergency requirements.  If you have a problem with non-compliance in your neighborhood, please call our non-emergency number at 339-3196 to report.  Meanwhile, why aren't those kids in school today?  When I was young I walked 5 miles through knee high snow................     

Welcome To My Blog

From someone who wishes he could return to the days of platform shoes and leisure suits -- if you don't know what these are, get out the Betamax and rent a "Saturday Night Fever" tape --,  here's my foray into 21st Century sort-of-personal interaction.  Please bear with me as I fumble my way through.  The purpose of this thing is to allow me to provide info about our department, inform about law enforcement topics relevant to Papillion, and opine on just about anything (caution: May not always be politically correct and might include humor).  If something of interest comes up, I'll drop the hockey puck and we can all take it from there.  In the meantime, please feel free to chime in with suggestions.  I'll be glad to address anything that's clean and not too mean.

P.S. You can always email me directly at lhouloose@papillion.org if you don't want the world (well, maybe 5 or 6 others who might find this blog) to see it.