Thursday, March 18, 2010
In 2009 DeKalb County Answered Nearly 80,000 Alarms, 97 % Where False
This is all the more reason the department should adopt a "Verified Alarm" policy. It's really simple. A resident has an alarm. The alarm company who is being paid by the resident should send someone to verify the alarm is valid. If it is, the police respond. If not, they don't. Simple.
"Alarm dealers view police as a gift to their business. They sell a system, charge monthly fees for managing effective response that is provided and paid by the general taxpayers. Dealers consider false activation to be an issue merely between the police and the customers. There is also little (apparent) interest by individual dealers to spend resources in order to solve their own and the communal problem".
Jodie Fleisher's story was informative, but it failed to bring to light the yearly cost to the taxpayers for the police and fire responding to these alarms. It has to be in the millions of dollars each year wasted. Maybe a follow up in order?
The county is on the verge of financial ruin. Instead of cutting out wasteful spending on false alarms, the commissioners lay off and furlough their employees and are itching to raise property taxes on it's citizens.
Someone has to stand up and say enough is enough!
Click here for Salt Lake City Utah police alarm policy
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11 comments:
There must be a better way, or better device. Alarm companies need to be more accountable for operational issues. And (oh THIS will be popular) the County should charge for excessive false alarms. I want my police coverage to be effective, not waste time like this. 97% ?? Wow. Wake the hell UP Dekalb.
Hey...Don't diss the biggest part of my policing day, providing the leg work for the alarm companies.
It's good to see tha FOP stand up for us recently. ...and yea...blame it on a computer glitch Dekalb..it is rally a management glitch as usual....No recorders court collections, no false alarm collections..check in to the non collections for EMS while you are at it. That should be a doozie...the yoyo's that use EMS for a doctors office. Thanks
Years ago they were going to have a separate line for alarm companies and charge them 25 dollars for every alarm a police unit was dispatched too. Like everything else it went no-where once it left the P.D.
So in typical Dekalb fashion, the answer is to invest $90k in new software?!?!? Really?? I need to get into the government software business... apparently you don't have to even make a good product.
No money was collected because of a $90,000 software glitch?
My computer came with a program called "Microsoft Excel." I'll bet it could do the job just fine!
Poster #5 *exactly* LOL. My suggestion that won't require any new "software" yadah, yadah...is this: when the alarm company calls in---unless the POA (point of activation) is Front door, rear door, or window then units should not respond-period. All these "general" and "interior motion" crap alarms are nothing more than fluffy the cat or Hercules the bulldog running around all day in these homes. Ughh
I tell you, Im sick and tired of being sick and tired!
I can only wonder how many times I have responded to these false alarms over my tenure.
Ethel propose's an idea to recoup these fees, and it's simple.
First of all send the alarm company they are being paid to monitor the alarm right, let them monitor it.
If a crime has been commited then their sorry asses can call the police to investigate the crime.
Seems simple enough to us, but if that cant be accomplished for political reasons, then send a officer.
If it is deemed to be false then send a supervisor with a receipt book in hand.
We can the politely take payments on the spot, pay up or take a ride to post a cash bond at the pokey.
Hell I even propse that we get sponsorship from mastercard,visa, or american express.
We can place their stickers on our units to show our support for any form of payment.
We will call it the "Bitch Slap Fee", just for the idiots who cant seem to push the right numbers on their keypads.
Now I would like to continue but Ethel is running around with no clothes on, and to be honest it is just down right nasty!
FYI she is up for adoption, and has been spayed.
It is ludicrous that we are still responding to false alrams without payment. Simple solution: if we respond and the alarm is false, automatic $25.00 fee. If it's valid, no fee. I bet that will wake the dumbasses up who leave balloons and pets inside so that the motion detector goes off!! FYI, I heard from Communications that NO ONE is currently monitoring the false alarms to collect payment for the more than 3false alarms everyone gets every year. So no money is coming in. Anyone surprised???
Marietta used to have this same problem until 2007. Everyone was required to register their alarms every year. Within the policy, it stated what happens when a false alarm occurs and gives them a chance to appeal in municipal court if they wish.
MPD used the campaign of keeping officers on patrol rather than wasting time on false alarms. "Just think what we could be doing if we weren't running to a false alarm."
That stopped people from getting those cheap alarms that are advertised on telephone poles and exit ramps, you know the ones that go off when the when blows.
I have had two false alarms which resulted in police response. I was most unhappy about these when I figured out they were in error. Once was an internal door blew open which broke a sensor perimeter (my fault for not securing the door). The other was a still unknown cause in a room which has a motion sensor. I was not home so I was most distressed to get the alarm. I'm still at a loss as to how this closed room had a motion event.
In both cases I was apologetic to the officers for their required response.
I do honestly expect that we residents DO get a benefit from having an alarm and police response but at the same time, we use time which would be better spent on investigation and response to bona fide incidents.
Frankly, as painful as it would be, I can see a fine or fee for such an incident being somewhat reasonable. $25 or some such. Same as an NSF charge at a bank.
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