Posted on 10/19/2006 7:25:52 AM PDT by Froufrou
If you catch someone smoking in a non-smoking area in Omaha, Neb., call the police. The Omaha Police Department (OPD) is encouraging city residents to call 911 in the wake of the citywide ban on smoking that went into effect on Oct. 2.
Teresa Negron, sergeant in charge of public information of the OPD, explained that the department encourages observers of infractions to pick up the phone to report the infraction -- just like they would for any other crime they observe being committed.
"Citizens or business owners that observe a violation to the smoking ban are urged to call 911 and report the violation," Negron told Cybercast News Service. "[It's like] any other crime that happens in any city -- if somebody sees a crime happen, they can call 911 and report it."
Negron did not necessarily endorse immediately calling 911 but still saw it as a viable option.
"What I would recommend for people to do is bring it to the attention of the management, and if that doesn't stop, then obviously contact us, and we'll respond and we'll handle it," she said.
However, the calls are not high priority.
"The first week, we had maybe 10 calls in the entire city," said Negron. "Calls concerning the smoking ban were not high-priority calls, so we have a system in place that calls that come in and have a higher priority will be handled."
The penalty is a citation and fee for individuals caught violating the ban -- $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third and subsequent offenses, according to a summary of the city ordinance posted online.
"Obviously, they would receive a citation for violating the smoking ordinance," said Negron.
According to some, however, the new law will encourage people to become "snitches."
"I think that it's one thing for people to monitor themselves," said Amy Kauffman, research fellow for the Hudson Institute. "It's another thing to ask people to monitor their friends, neighbors and cohorts. It is turning people into snitches."
Kauffman called this "a horrible thing" and a waste of city resources.
"To use 911 for this purpose goes against what 911 is designated for. It is an emergency service. These are not emergencies," Kauffman said.
She further classified the situation as over the top.
"To take 911, which is supposed to respond to someone within I guess one to three minutes, and use it for this and to clog the lines with busybodies phoning in on their neighbors is ridiculous."
Mark Welsch, president of the Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution (GASP) of Nebraska, disagrees.
"It's not an over-reaction, it's a good use of our city resources" that are being squandered on smokers, according to Welsch.
"I think about 13 percent of our total Medicaid expenses are caused by tobacco," Welsch said. "So, I'm paying too much. I don't want to subsidize tobacco use in my state. We should have just enough to break even. For next year, we would have to raise the tobacco tax by about 50 cents per pack -- just to break even."
Smoking isn't the only problem that needs fixing to trim down the costs, Welsch said. There's also a problem with food consumption that needs attention.
"We're such a fat country, by and large. Somebody needs to do something, or our Medicaid and Medicare costs are just going to continue to go up and up, not just because of smoking, but because of people being overweight and too lethargic to take their butts outside and walk," said Welsch.
Kauffman noted that smoking is not good for your health but insisted that 911 calls are not the answer.
"Smoking has been proven to be bad for one's health," she said. "But I really think that sometimes, these people go a little bit too far. It is a trend, but this is different because not only is it a trend where they're saying 'no smoking,' but now they're asking people to actually phone in and report other people."
Because not all smokers are as polite and respectful of other people's rights as the ones here...
Some poeple are inconsiderate and rude.Trying to cover those instances with laws, rules and use of the 911 sytem flies in the face of everything this website stands for.
Good to see the crime rate in Omaha is so low that the police have nothing else to do.
They can smoke in North Korea, Cuba, China and Venezuela.
How many times will a 911 resoucrce officer have to go and ticket a smoker in a not smoking zone? Who is at fault here? Why would a smoker make a point of smoking in that zone, knowing it is against the law?
I did not see a description of what the smoke free zones are in the article. I guess people from out of town will get to learn by getting a ticket.
Because not all smokers are as polite and respectful of other people's rights as the ones here...
Exactly, there are rude smokers, rude drivers, rude customers, rude clerks, rude people that are ruining the world for others , with disrespecting another persons rights.
Also, someone in government has done the math and in spite of all the ponitifcating on the costs of smoking, our taxes apparently well outrun the costs-or it would be banned.
Especially when it is so much fun to sit right on the edge of a smoking section with a Cohiba and blow smoke into the nonsmoking area.
LOL! A poster boy for "The Slippery Slope".
Must be Democrat, ACLU card-carrying member.
And within the hour I'd bet smokers would be getting turned in whether or not they were smoking in the non-smoking area. An entire new cottage industry would be born. How do you prove you were not?...and the slippery slope gets steeper.
Oh, and I think people of Omaha ought to flood the 911 center with smoking calls.
I could see me going to jail in Omaha.
-call 911 to report smokers? LOL......oh, gosh......that is funny.
What next? I am waiting for algore to report that smokers are responsible for global warming. rme
Smoke Free Omaha
http://www.lungnebraska.org/whatwedo/smokefree/home.asp
http://www.lungnebraska.org/Omaha%20Ordinance%20Q%20&%20A.pdf
"What's next? Bringing in a SWAT team because a man was seen carrying a bible?"
Don't give 'em any ideas!
I will never take my money to Omaha. If they decide to curb personal freedoms like that (again health issues or not), then they deserve to suffer and have their businesses go under. Screw you, Omaha.
Actually, this is out of date. Immediately after this was said, it was overruled by the Mayor's office. They announced that people are NOT to call 911 if they see someone smoking. They are to notify the owner of the business. If the owner of the business does not do anything, they are to call the NON-emergency Police number (which means nothing will be done).
The person who said that was a fairly low level mouthpiece for the police.
I've done it twice (that I know of, I guess). Once on purpose and once on accident.
Disney World hides their smoking areas. I knew they existed, I just couldn't find one. So I lit up where I was (I was well away from people-not in line or near where people were eating), hoping an employee would offer to show me where it was. One did, and I happily went along.
The other was on the outside deck of a cruise ship. I had started out on the smoking side and then while watching something and trying to get a better view, I meandered into the non-smoking area. No one said anything to me, but when I noticed where I was, I moved.
It can be hard to figure out if you're outside. Well, except when you're at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. They have an actual pen; an 8 foot high iron fence enclosed area. I laughed my butt off! We looked like zoo animals.
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