49ers Promise To Pony Up For Police Escorts
SANTA CLARA (KCBS) - The free ride appeared to be coming to an end for the San Francisco 49ers, after it came to light that the football team had been escorted to and from some games and the airport by on duty Santa Clara police officers without charge, for the past three and a half years.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
Police escorted the team to Mineta San Jose International Airport and preseason games at least 50 times without reimbursement for the service. The escorts were estimated at a cost of about $17,000.
"I think the team needs to pay for it themselves," one woman declared in Santa Clara. "Why should the taxpayers have to pay for it?"
She questioned whether the team received special treatment from the city.
"They get enough money from the fans, they get enough money from everything else, their commercials. They need to pay the bill themselves."
A more supportive fan chalked it up to a possible paperwork snafu.
"I am a sports fan and I haven't seen anything from the 49ers that would lead me to believe that they would do this intentionally," the man said. "Maybe it's something that the city agreed to do when the 49ers moved their training camp down here several years ago."
A 49ers spokesperson told KCBS that the team was more than willing to pay Santa Clara for the police escorts, but simply never received a bill.
Santa Clara's police chief responded that he planned to submit a bill to the team for reimbursement within the next two months.
The Oakland Raiders also employed police escorts, but used only off duty Oakland officers. The team paid the cost of officer overtime.
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