BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — The Howell Police Department wants the community to be aware that there may be an entity operating in the municipality that is soliciting contributions over the telephone purportedly for “the families of Howell police officers.”
Cpl. Kevin Stout, president of PBA Local 228, told the Tri-Town News that not only will Howell police never solicit for donations of any kind over the telephone, no other legitimate state PBA organization will either as they are forbidden to do so by state law.
Stout said he could not make the same unequivocal statement about the Fraternal Order of Police, which is a wholly separate entity.
However, it is only the Howell PBA Local 228 which could ever be considered to be legitimately soliciting on behalf of any Howell police officer, according to Stout. He reiterated that any time the Howell PBA solicits funds from the community it is done only through mailings and fund-raisers, and never over the telephone.
The warning to be alert for telephone scamsters followed notification from a resident who told police she had been called at home by someone who said he was seeking donations to benefit the families of Howell police officers.
According to the resident, when she asked the caller to send written material in order to acquaint her with the organization and its mission, the caller hung up. The woman told the Tri-Town News she was concerned that such a telephone sales pitch could entice senior citizens to send money to an organization that was not really working on behalf of the local police department.
Stout echoed that concern when he said that since members of the senior community traditionally go out of their way to support their local police department, he wanted a warning to go out to the community at large so that no well-meaning individuals would end up being taken advantage of by a phony solicitation.