The Daily News of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The number of false burglar-alarm calls to police has decreased by nearly 60 percent in the eight years that the city has been charging for them, the Police Commission said Wednesday.
The city fielded fewer than 42,000 false-alarm calls in 2011 — compared with 102,000 in 2003 before a new police policy took effect.
That policy included charging alarm customers an escalating series of fines for false calls, and declining to send officers out if a location has already had two false alarms that year and the third alarm is not verified.
That policy was a compromise from the original proposal to stop responding to any unverified alarms.
“It’s working out on both ends,” Police Commission spokeswoman Tami Catania said. “They don’t get charged for (the first false alarm), and it’s better for us because officers can do other things.”
Before the policy change, the Los Angeles Police Department was besieged by false-alarm calls, considered a massive waste of time for officers, pulling them away from dealing with real crime.
Even the valid burglar alarms weren’t helping catch crooks. In 2001, the department said, 123,000 alarm calls resulted in one arrest — not surprising since it takes police about 45 minutes to arrive after an alarm call.
The commission at that time proposed a radical shift: Officers would no longer respond to a burglar alarm at all unless it was verified by a human — a neighbor, resident, business employee or security guard — that a crime was really in progress.
Residents balked, and so did the City Council, which adopted a compromise plan of requiring verification on a third alarm call at a location that had two false calls that year. Alarm owners are also now charged increasing fines that can reach $351.
Last year, police responded to less than half the number of alarm calls as in 2003 — 52,845, compared with 107,642 eight years prior.
While nearly 80 percent were still false alarms, that’s down from the 95 percent it used to be.
Brett Salles, who owns Acme Valley Security in Van Nuys, said the prospect of big fines has helped cut down on false alarms, but so has improving alarm technology.
He said new customers mention the fines all the time but most aren’t dissuaded from getting security systems because they still want peace of mind.
“I think what it’s done more than anything is it’s encouraged people to get a permit,” Salles said.
A city permit — $34 the first time, then $30 a year — cuts the cost of a false alarm fine by $100 to $150. And you can take an online “alarm school” class to get the first fine waived.
There were 129,922 permit holders in the city last year, and the city collected more than $7.8 million in false alarm fines from them as well as from people without permits, Catania said.
City Council members can get free alarm systems at their homes, don’t have to pay for permits and aren’t fined for any false alarms. An alarm at a council member’s house is sent directly to police, rather than an alarm company, meaning a much quicker response.
Police have defended that practice, saying the nature of elected officials’ jobs makes them potential targets.
For years, the city had lagged in collecting false alarm fines, but the Police Commission - which directly oversees the alarm program — said that’s improved since a system called Cry Wolf was installed in 2009.
Salles said the majority of false alarms happen in the first month a system is installed, when people aren’t used to using it.
Installers try to teach people how to arm and disarm the alarm, but human nature comes into play.
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