A Prince William County police sergeant said the department has lost an estimated 7,500 hours responding to false alarms in fiscal 2008, prompting the Board of Supervisors to pass legislation that would impose escalating fines for those who trigger the alarms.
Sgt. Thomas Garrity of the county police department told the board that there were more than 13,500 alarms triggered in fiscal 2008, and more than 2,200 were canceled by the alarm company before police arrived on the scene.
Of the 11,334 alarms to which officers responded, only 19 — less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all alarm calls — involved criminal activity.
“By doing this, we are taking the little resources we have and devoting them to responding to false alarms,” he said.
The new ordinance would impose a $500 fine for every false alarm triggered after the eighth set off within a 12-month period, and provides that the first two false alarms will not result in charges for the user. Previously, the second false alarm in a nine-month period incurred a $25 fine, and the third and subsequent calls incurred $50 fines “whether you have 107 or five,” Garrity said.
“Every other jurisdiction that has imposed a similar ordinance, in their first year has seen an 18 to 20 percent drop in false alarm calls,” he added.
Garrity said that since Montgomery County imposed a similar ordinance in 1995, the county’s total alarm calls have dropped 47 percent while the total number of alarm users has more than doubled.
“This is all being done for the citizens’ good here,” said Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large.
“We’ve got a rash of false alarms,” he added. “It’s consuming too much police time.”
Garrity agreed, saying that reducing the overall number of alarm calls would increase the safety of the community. He said that if the number of false alarm calls decrease, citizens would be more likely to pay more attention and take the alarm calls more seriously. The proposed changes would go into effect July 1, 2009.
