EDITORIAL: Use caution in paying cops via fees

The Lake County Council is wise to be cautious about using police-generated user fees to hire five officers as well as protecting 18 officers' jobs.

The council voted Tuesday to use new and increased fees to pay for 18 officers already on the payroll, part of a compromise inspired by the property tax cap.

Among the new fees are $125 to have police summon a tow truck for a disabled or illegal car, $5 to have police inspect cars for proper ownership, $60 to have police inspect a junk car for ownership and $200 to have the sheriff oversee the sale of a foreclosed home.

Tapping user fees is a better alternative than borrowing from the rainy day fund or using casino tax revenue, as the council did last year for a dozen police officers.

Still, public safety is a basic government function, and to have to rely on user fees — generated by police activity — to fund police salaries should be a matter of concern.

There must be sufficient money to cover police salaries even if user fees don't generate as much as predicted. And police shouldn't be generating fees simply to cover police salaries. That's not good public policy.

Councilwoman Elsie Franklin, D-Gary, opposed using those fees to hire five more officers.

"I have my apprehensions because we may not have the funds and would have to lay them off later," Franklin said.

No one wants to see that.

So see how the collections from these fees come in before committing to using the money to hire additional officers with that money.

And keep working on cutting elsewhere in the budget so more of those police jobs can be supported by property taxes instead of user fees.