Coalition against Insurance Fraud: Pay me now or …

Police are responding less and less to minor auto accidents

If you crash cars for a living in New Orleans, your life may be getting a bit easier.

Thanks to a bill in the state legislature, police in the Crescent City may no longer be required to respond to fender benders. If you’re involved in a minor accident, just head over to your local police station, give them the details, and they’ll  hand you an accident report you can use to file your insurance claim.

Crashers will no longer need to stage a collision. Just report it. How convenient.

The bill aims to relieve the cash-strapped city so police can focus more on violent and more-serious crimes. Responding to some 14,000 minor accidents each year is a drain on city resources, according to news reports.

That argument is hard to argue with. And it’s one that more and more jurisdictions are grappling with as cities continue struggling with adequate funding for police.

The extra dollars residents likely will pay in auto premiums rarely gets discussed in these deliberations. It’s a hidden tax that’s better spent paying for more police.

So while fraud fighters likely won’t win this policy battle, they can try to minimize the losses by educating the public and beefing up anti-fraud training of claims reps.

Pay now or pay later. Either way, this legislation will cost taxpayers and consumers.