County’s 911 Service Is A Hoax, Man Says Complaint Filed Against Kootenai County For Having Two Systems

Richard Waller ranted for years that his 911 service was a rip-off. Nobody listened.

So he finally did what most scam victims do: He called the cops.

Last week, the 58-year-old ex-farmer filed a criminal complaint against Kootenai County, charging the county and Post Falls stole $60 from him. That’s the money he and other county telephone owners have paid to have emergency 911 service for the past five years.

“It’s a theft because I don’t get a service and I do pay a fee,” Waller said.

That fee is $12 per year. But the dispute is not just over his money, Waller said, but also money paid by others in his situation.

“Sure, it’s only a dollar a month, but there’s 6,000 of us,” he said. “Over five years that’s more than $350,000.”

Waller said people living outside Post Falls are pinched by a dispute between that city’s 911 center and the county’s 2-year-old center. He’s had enough.

“It’s time the bureaucrats worked this stupid thing out,” he said.

His complaint: Post Falls takes 911 calls for fire emergencies from Rathdrum, Post Falls and Hauser Lake. Kootenai County takes the emergency calls asking for police. But all 911 calls in his area are routed through Post Falls.

So when Waller calls 911 looking for police, “you get an operator who says, ‘Sorry sir, that’s not our jurisdiction,”’ Waller said.

When hoodlums were arguing on his lawn six months ago, Waller said, a 911 operator told his wife to hang up and call the sheriff’s department.

Post Falls officials want their smaller center, established in the early 1980s, to stay independent. Kootenai County authorities want the two consolidated and run by county officials.

Waller said he just wants what he pays for.

That’s why he wants the charge investigated like any other crime, he said. He’s tired of “bureaucrats fighting over turf.”

“This is stupid, but it makes me mad,” he said.

But he’s not sure the message is getting through.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies, longtime supporters of consolidation, seemed gleefully willing to file his complaint with the prosecutor’s office, he said.

“Mr. Waller feels, and it’s possibly substantiated, that he’s been the victim of fraud,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger. “If that’s true, it shows the fallacies of having two systems.”

Post Falls Police Chief Cliff Hayes, who has met with Waller before, said the county is pushing for change and therefore instigating any dispute.

“I don’t want to hear it anymore either. I’m with Mr. Waller,” Hayes said.

Prosecutors say the charges probably won’t be taken as anything more than a simple complaint. But Waller expects more.

“If I don’t get satisfaction, I will sue for my $60 back,” he said.

, DataTimes