Posted on 11/01/2025 3:33:14 PM PDT by algore
A California police chief is under fire for allegedly commuting hundreds of miles from his home in Idaho.
Eamonn Allen, a San Mateo County sheriff's office captain, is accused of sleeping in the Millbrae police station in between the mammoth journeys.
Records indicate that Allen moved into a $1 million 3,773-square-foot home in Meridian, Idaho, last summer.
That places him nearly 700 miles and either a 10-hour drive or about a two-hour flight from Millbrae, where he is the chief of police.
'Not [being] able to return to work on short notice in the event of an emergency is ridiculous,' Richard Corriea, a retired San Francisco police commander, told ABC7.
'You'd want a police chief that's a stakeholder in the community and able to experience the community at a granular level to really understand it and know what's going on, and also to be present on short notice.'
Calls for Allen to be investigated began after fire inspectors visited the Millbrae police station on October 21 and discovered two rooms being used as sleeping quarters.
City spokesperson Annabelle Acosta told NBC Bay Area: 'It appears there are two separate living quarters, one with two beds and the other with one bed.
The city had no knowledge of the dwelling units inside the police station until a routine inspection found them.'
The single-bed space lacked an emergency exit in case of a fire, but allegedly contained a mattress, desk and what looked like a half-gallon of liquor.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This don’t seem to be a big deal to me. That county probably has a clause police staff need to reside in the jurisdiction of the county , and he violated that. So buy a crappy house in the county as his primary residence, and spend weekends-holidays at his million dollar home. Thats kind of what he was doing by “living” at the office.
“Super commuting” to the SF Bay Area isn’t actually that rare. The San Francisco fire and police departments reportedly have many employees who live >500 miles away... flying in and out weekly on budget airlines, crashing on friends’ couches etc. while “home” is far, far away. I’ve even met nurses in S.F. who “live” in places like Ohio but commute in and out 4-6 times/month. Seems crazy and stressful but it’s not totally irrational... work where the pay is higher and live where housing is better/cheaper.
It used to be that public safety positions, LE, EMTs, firefighters were required to live where they worked.
If that’s the case in this case, and the guy’s residence is in Idaho, he’s bleeped.
Then there are the statw tax implications...
He should have had a hide-a-bed or slept in a van or camper.
Being police chief or president requires more than 9 to 5.
He is probably paying taxes like he is a resident of CA. I wonder if he claimed his ID home as his primary resident for lower property taxes?
So no one’s going to mention the half-gallon of liquor?
That’s interesting since when my folks vacationed down there, they would spend several consecutive weeks in Cali, then AZ, then NV, then back to Cali.
They never got any sort of harassment from the authorities over residency.
It is the law, and if you have a local officer after you it can be a problem. But they still have to prove it and this is pretty hard to do. It is especially a problem along the state border towns between Cali and Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.
Then comes the State work/resident income tax situation....
Az honors dual Residency. 51% of the year is honored as a legal resident. But Cali does not honor it in return... If they want to get you, 15 days is it...
So... What RVers do is have family send them receipts from the other state so they can try to prove they were back in the other state and “just got back” to Cali...
If you do not have this proof you will pay...
Idaho don’t have air ports or charters.
Californicators are everywhere up there. Where I lived every house that hit the market was bought sight unseen for cash from Bay Area transplant. Especially during covid lockdowns. They still got paid Bay Area wages but could work anywhere. Sandpoint use to have nice little houses under 100k that the locals could afford, now, a 1 bedroom dump will sell for 500k.
Good info. That said, there are lots of people that live in one state and work in another state and file their taxes accordingly.
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