Caught this on the news the other night . The City of O'Fallon Missouri is looking into passing a new law that forces gas station customers to prepay before pumping their fuel . This bright idea is the concept of the Police Chief . He went on Camera to state that last year his officers answered 392 calls for drive offs and had to WASTE about 20 minutes per call filling out paperwork . Last time I checked the crime of theft has been committed here . Now the police consider having to actually do some work is a waste of their time ??!!! Whats next ? Will they decide that burglary is a waste of their time ? Car thefts ? Home invasions perhaps ? God knows cops have more important laws to enforce like traffic laws , after all these are nothing but a pure profit for the cops and the city's alike . This is really twisted , you get hired to do the job of enforcing the law and now want a law passed to keep you from having to do part of the job .
I'm sure we all know these types of people. The ones who show up at work to just punch a clock and can't be bothered to actually do any work. Can't be bothered to pursue or investigate drive offs? Sounds like someone needs to retire. I'm sure they would back it up showing statistics for drive-offs/taxpayer dollars to make it seem like a good idea. It's ones like this that make others of their profession look like crap. Unfortunately you have to take the good with the bad and hope that later you can get rid of the bad.
GOOD FOR HIM, Must be Smallville, MO. In most Major Metro Areas, Pre-pay has been rule since gas topped 3 Bucks. How can a store lock it's clerk in a Lexan Cage and expect him or her police gas drive-offs with the pump turned on prior to paying. What are the Po-Po supposed to do, file a report for the smucks insurance or for a tax write-off. A Suburban holds 37 gal at $4 = $148.00, a misdemeanor crime in this area, Po-Po can arrest unless witnesses the act. Think smuck who turned on the pump wants to go sign a warrant or can even ID perp in Photo-Line up. Unless it's Mayberry and Andy knows everyone a call to 911 on a gas theft is a waste. Yea we all know Cops are Lazy, but WTF we baby-sit idiots all day. Thanks,
I know it has been that way in KC for a few years now, the only way to get around it is that QuickTrip stores let you sign up and have a card that IDs who you are and turns on the pump so you can fill up. I have a problem with them setting it up so you have to prepay simply because if you pay at the pump many of them charge you $100 when it authorizes then refunds the balance in a few days. A lot of folks have stopped for $10-20 in gas and gotten screwed when that extra $80-90 overdrafted their accounts. I generaly prefer to deal in cash and when I go to fill up I dont know how much its going to take to fill the tank untill I have pumped it. I used to work at a gas station/convenience store and I know you had to watch for drive offs and get descriptions and plates to cal in if you had a drive off. Also unless the pumps are real new (or probably some of the special pumps like for semis)then it would be pretty hard for it to be over $100 on a drive off. The pumps were not made with a hundred space on the readout so when the pump reaches $100 it shuts off has to be restarted and with most systems it cant be restarted untill the register says it has been paid or prepaid with the card.
No TNZ71 it isn't even close to small town MO . Fact of the matter is I think it would be foolish for the gas station to not make prepay a rule but that the businesses decision not the cops . And yes in theory I agree with the guy if his definition of "Better things to do" is catch real criminals or at least provide citizens with better protection through community visibility and not sitting on the roadside running a speed trap . Never the less a law has been broken and he took the job , does the average person get to pick and choose what tasks they perform at work much less request a law be passed to prevent him from doing parts of his job ? Where do we draw the line with crap like this ? If a bunch of kids decide to have a weekend ritual of destroying roadside mailboxes in the middle of the night will he be able to just say he has better things to do ? After all it would only be a mailbox the victim could replace it for $10-20 tops whats the big deal ? How about if they get as creative as one guy in the news ? He apparently would park over the top of the tanks and had a trap door of some kind in his van , he would run a hose into the tanks and get 50 gallons + per trip . They still hadn't caught him apparently due to stolen plates on the vehicle . Is that a waste of the cops time too ? Another community did pass such a law . The stated reason on the news was that because a highway ran through the municipality and by time the officer arrived the Perp could have gotten on the highway and be miles away . Sure they could but will that be an acceptable excuse for the Police to ignore robbery calls in the future ? If it all sounds stupid and unlikely to you so do things like sending a kid to the office or even suspending them for making a drawing of a gun or talking about them or how about taking a pair of fingernail clippers to school getting a kid a 6 month suspension ? O and BTW with the attitude of good for him , I bet the citizens where you work just love the quality of protection you provide , real first class professionalism there , don't drop your Donut getting out of the car , you might get jelly on the uniform leaving evidence of how hard you worked .
I thought all of the pump-your-own-gas stations had to prepay. At least, that's what I've experienced when I drive out of state on my side of the country.
Untill recently it had always been up to the station. Many/most along major highways and such tend to require prepay, particularly at night and reguardless many/most make anyone they notice has out of state plates prepay.
