Claremont : Police Service Fees Rise

Claremont residents will now have to pay a fee of $100 to $1,000 if police go to their residences more than once to handle a complaint about disturbing the peace.

The charge for causing police to respond more than once is one of several new fees for police services that were approved by the City Council last week.

After studying fees charged by other Southern California cities for some police services, Claremont police asked the council to maintain some existing fees, such as the $15 charge for a copy of a police report, to increase others, and to add several new ones.

Among the new fees that police will charge for what they call “non-routine” services are: $20 to verify an automobile’s vehicle identification number, a minimum of $100 for an intentional false 911 call, $30 for a burglar alarm permit, $40 for a concealed weapons permit, $33 an hour for statistical data research, and $10 (only for those who are not Claremont residents) for an officer to verify repairs made to a car so the owner can comply with a “fix-it” ticket.

Police Capt. Russ Brown said the goal of charging the fees is not to create extra revenue for the city, but to recoup the cost of dedicating police officers to perform non-routine services that are used by only a small fraction of residents.