Owning faulty alarms may become costly in Fairfax Co.
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
March 23, 2009
Owning a malfunctioning alarm that wastes the time of police and firefighters will probably get more expensive in Fairfax County.
County Executive Anthony Griffin is proposing to raise fines for faulty security and fire alarms, also called “nuisance alarms,” in the hopes of raising $757,000 toward the county’s budget gap. The charges would increase up to $3,000 an incident for the most overzealous security systems, ones that wrongly summon authorities more than 24 times in a year, according to budget documents.
The proposal is part of a larger bundle of fee increases that — with deep spending cuts and a tax rate increase — would close next fiscal year’s $650 million budget shortfall. Supervisors still have weeks to consider the proposal before its scheduled adoption in late April.
For a faulty fire alarm, the Fire and Rescue Department would let the first visit and follow-up slide. Subsequent visits would result in a charge equivalent to the fire marshal’s $128 hourly rate. The fee would cover broken alarms, badly installed or maintained alarms and those activated for unknown reasons, according to department spokesman Lt. Willie Bailey.
The fees for boy-who-cried-wolf security systems would be much higher. Last fiscal year, police dealt with 560 properties with at least 10 false alarms each. Each of those incidents is capped at a $500 fee under the current structure. Griffin’s proposal would raise that cap sixfold. Police still would offer amnesty for the first two false alarms.
Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay said the increase in faulty alarm fees is “reasonable” and will help take the burden of raising revenue off the backs of homeowners, who make up the largest tax base in Fairfax County.
“I wouldn’t support higher [fees] than that because we don’t want to discourage people from having alarms in the first place,” he said. “But for those who are careless or don’t pay attention to it, I think the amount of money is appropriate.”
