LA police to begin limiting burglar alarm response

kcal9.com ^

[chance33_98]

LA police to begin limiting burglar alarm response

Wednesday December 31, 2003 LOS ANGELES (AP) Police are to implement a new policy Thursday requiring that burglar alarms be verified before police respond if the home or business has already had at least two false alarms in a year.

The plan by Mayor James Hahn also lets the city require customers buy $31 alarm permits and charge for responding to false alarms, starting at $95.

The changes approved by the police commission in July was less drastic than a plan advanced a year ago, which would have ended police response to all burglar alarms not verified by surveillance camera or witnesses. That policy, proposed by Police Chief William Bratton, drew intense debate and was never implemented.

Bratton has said as much as 15 percent of officers' patrol time involved answering false alarms, and that verification requirements quicken police response time to real emergencies and save money.

Opponents claim no-response policies target low-income homeowners who rely on burglar alarms for safety.

Police statistics show 43 percent of false alarms last year came from homes or businesses where alarms had gone off more than three times in a year. The mayor's office says the new policy will reduce false alarm responses by 55 percent.

Homeowners or businesses with city permits for their alarms will pay $95 for the first false alarm and $50 more every other time police respond to a false alarm. Those without permits pay $190 at first, and $100 more for each additional false alarm response.

Other cities, including San Francisco, have begun requiring alarm permits and charging for false alarms.

[PhiKapMom]

Here in Norman, OK, you get fined after so many false alarms. When I lived on the westside of Norman, the fire trucks kept making the same trips to the same houses sometimes several times a day. Once they started fining the people, surprisingly the false alarms cut way back.

[Paleo Conservative]

I think my local police department started doing that ten years ago. What took LA so long?

[MineralMan]

Now if they'd just start fining people for car alarms that go off all the time. Nobody even pays attention to them anymore. The small parking lot at the building where I have my business has only 20 spaces, but at least 10 alarms go off in the lot every day.

[Xenalyte]

What you said!

[MineralMan]

I think car alarms are about the silliest thing. I watched the other day while a woman parked in front of our local post office. She set her alarm as she got out of the car, walked 10 feet, dropped her letter in the outside mailbox, then triggered the alarm when she opened her car door.

It took her at least three minutes to figure out how to shut the darned thing off.

The question is: Did she really think someone was going to steal her car in the 30 seconds she was out of it? Amazing!

[Xenalyte]

And she likely had children, who are undoubtedly as stoopid as she. (sigh)

[Iris7]

In this area the police have never responded to any intrusion alarms whatever nor the fire department to fire alarms except those in public buildings. Private concerns provide such services, including intrusion alarm response at public schools and other government buildings. Fire or police are called if they need backup.

These security guards catch burglars all the time; since they are acting as the agent of the owner they can arrest suspects using force if necessary, the same way a homeowner can arrest a felon on his own property.

[MineralMan]

"These security guards catch burglars all the time; since they are acting as the agent of the owner they can arrest suspects using force if necessary, the same way a homeowner can arrest a felon on his own property."

Citizen's arrest! Citizen's arrest!

[Atlas Sneezed]

The way to avoid this is to have an arrangement with your neighbors. Whenever you hear the alarm of a neighbor going off for more than an "oops" moment, you call 911, saying that you think a neighbor's house just got broken into, and that the burglar is probably still there, but you can't be sure if what you saw is actually a burglar.

In the city we used to live in, the response time was at least 45 minutes, sometimes never (to 3-4 falses over more years than that.)

[Puppage]

Did she really think someone was going to steal her car in the 30 seconds she was out of it?

They've been stolen in less time.

[MineralMan]

"Did she really think someone was going to steal her car in the 30 seconds she was out of it?
They've been stolen in less time."

Not in the town where I live.