Last year, David Emery, a North Avondale, Ohio resident, was headed home when he was nearly clipped by a speeding officer running a stop sign heading through an intersection. He was keen enough to notice the sirens weren’t active. He swerved and successfully missed the officer’s cruiser.

Something strange happened as he turned right onto the same street as the officer. The officer’s cruiser stopped, shifted into reverse, and slammed into Emery’s Toyota Prius. He hopped out of his hybrid and took photos of the damaged bumper, and the officer’s cruiser.

“I was kind of panicked,” Emery told WCPO. “I was very fortunate to have swerved and missed him because otherwise he would have t-boned me.”

The officer admitted to improperly backing into Emery’s Prius, and that he wasn’t responding to an emergency. With the paperwork in hand, Emery assumed filing the claim for the city’s insurance to pay for the damages would be simple. However, because it was a government vehicle, it quickly soured.

Emery jumped through hoop after hoop for nothing

Filing a claim took months, and Emery explained it was due to the asinine amount of steps he had to take to file it.

“There’s a link on the city’s website you have to click, and then it said I needed to call 311. I called 311, and then they said, ‘Oh, we need to transfer you to this place.’ Then they transferred me to someone with the city, and then I spoke to that person, told them more story, and they said, ‘Oh, well we need to transfer you to someone else.'”

And the nightmare continues.

“Then I told that person my story, and she told me, ‘Okay here’s an email address to go through to relay all this information,” he said.

Almost a year later, the police department responded to the claim, switching the narrative. It read the “Police Officer was operating in a Call for Service Duty,” and cited state code saying the City of Cincinnati was “immune from liability for damages of this nature.” His claim was denied.

Now Emery is left to pay for the officer’s damages himself

Despite paperwork showing the officer admitted fault and he wasn’t responding to an emergency, the department claimed he was. Now, he has to pay for the damages to the Prius himself.

He said he’s not going to go broke paying for the damages—but knows many residents would be strapped.

“I’m very fortunate and happy that I can handle this financially, but I’m certain that there are certain people that couldn’t,” he said. “I thought I did everything right, you know? I think nine months for me to get a response on something of this nature seems a little bit unnecessary.”