Some examples of drains on tax-funded emergency services by a few in the community include citizens who use emergency medical technicians and ambulance transport as private health-care providers and transportation service to medical facilities; businesses and tax-exempt organizations whose operations require police officers to direct traffic and maintain order; utility companies that require police officers to provide protection at sites of downed power lines for long periods following a storm; and police response to false alarms. This article proposes that those relatively few citizens and community organizations who regularly seek police and fire services at tax-payer expense be required to pay a user fee commensurate with what it costs to provide the service. This requires that emergency service agencies first identify the “cost drivers” in the community. A “cost-driver” is a person, group, or business that demands service on a repetitive basis. The demand is characteristically voluntary, in that it is not an emergency. Some communities also classify nonresident demands for service as a cost driver. It is critical to arrive at user fees through a carefully planned process. Emergency service agencies should not act unilaterally in adopting user fees for particular services. Key individuals must be involved in decisionmaking, including the mayor, the head of the town council, the head judge of the local court, the fire chief, and possibly homeowners’ associations. Also, the police chief must sell the concept of user fees to community leaders, the media, and the public at large. A key theme in selling the user fees should be keeping taxes down while freeing officers to serve the community as a whole in the provision of essential services.