It seems that California is leaking liberal sewage, and it’s finding it’s way to Indiana. We all know about the Nanny state attitude Fort Wayne has had in the recent past with everything from smoking bans, outdoor cooking bans, and now the potential for an outdoor lighting ordinance. Now the Jeffersonville Indiana City Council is looking at an ordinance that would force gas stations to require pre-payment at the pump.
It’s an effort to reduce the number of people who speed away from gas stations without paying. Police Chief Tim Deeringer says the problem has become worse since fuel prices soared to around $4 a gallon.
The proposed ordinance would make stores that sell gasoline and diesel fuel require payment in advance, either with cash or credit card at the pump. It would fine retailers up to $2,500 for not complying.
Why don’t the police just do their job and let the merchants decide how they want to handle it.
What a bunch of clowns – AWB
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Pat White must have thought the same thing since he’s discussing it right now.
It’s a well known fact that Pat White uses this blog and others for show prep.
It is an absurd item to legislate.
I have no problem with gas station owners setting policies like these; however, it is none of the government’s business.
Mike Sylvester
Awwwww c’mon Mike. If the gubbermint didn’t fix this, what ever would we do??????????????
Actually, now that I think about it, I’m amazed the Fort Wayne City Council didn’t come up with this idea. It dove-tails beautifully with light ordinances, smoking bans, barbecue bans, etc etc etc etc…….
How could they have missed this golden opportunity to control one more thing?????
At first I was thinking this law was totally idiotic, but have rethought that. If your house get’s burglarized, you’re going to call the police. And when you tell them that you left the door open while you were gone they will probably just laugh to themselves about how careless you were. But suppose your house is burglarized every day for a year, all because you still leave the door open. Is there a point where it might not be reasonable for the police to quit responding?
Now, suppose you are gas station owner who gets a drive off every day. Is there not some point where the police would be reasonable in saying “You could easily take care of this problem by requiring pre-payment?” Maybe they should make this law optional, but require those who don’t sign up for it to forgo their right to call the police out every time someone swipes their gas.
Phil, it’s the same thing with banks. They won’t install bulletproof glass to protect their tellers. We could reduce bank robberies tomorrow if every bank installed them. The fed could make this happen by refusing to insure any bank that doesn’t have the glass.
It should be optional for a gas station to require pre-pay. It’s certainly in their interests to require it; even if you get the plate number all the police can do is add another warrant to the file. The police can and should take this kind of report over the phone, since there is never any evidence left on the scene.
I would imagine that any gas station that doesn’t make you pre-pay would suffer some losses. For a very brief time, the Southtown WalMart sold gas without making people pre-pay. That didn’t last long at all, but it was refreshing to see that kind of optimism on the South Side.