By Police1 Staff
DETROIT— The Detroit Police Department will wait to send officers to investigate burglaries until the crime has been verified by an alarm company.
Alarm companies will use video surveillance to confirm break-ins before contacting police, according to The Detroit Free Press. Dubbed verified response, the policy takes effect next Monday and is expected to eliminate waste and improve police service, a department press release said. More than 98 percent of alarms Detroit officers respond to are false.
Detroit police will continue to respond to human-activated alarms, including holdup or panic alarms. Approximately 30 departments in the U.S. and Canada have adopted the policy since 1991, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.
“Our main goal is to respond to crime, and if we can utilize modern technology, then so much the better,” Police Cmdr. Todd Bettison said.