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Wayne County, NC Considers Fee for False Alarms

In North Carolina, Wayne County commissioners and the Sheriff's Office have been looking into a fee for multiple false alarms.

"False alarms have been a major problem," Sheriff Office's Maj. Ray Smith said. 

The city of Goldsboro already uses a similar plan, Goldsboro police operations Maj. Mike Hopper said. When Goldsboro police determine that an alarm was caused by human error -- not weather or other uncontrollable forces -- Hopper's office sends a letter. 

The letter informs citizens that they get three "free" false alarms per year. 

For each human-caused false alarm up to six, the department charges a fee of $50 per response. 

If an alarm system causes more than seven false alarms per year, the fee is $100 per response, according to details provided by the department. 

Hopper said town officials first started the system a few years ago. It hasn't caused any major problems, the major said. 

The department rarely had to collect a fee in 2007 -- just 14 times, with three total $100 fines -- which Hopper believes is an indicator of the program's success. 

"A lot of times, it's people who don't know the code," Hopper said. "We really haven't had any trouble the last few years since we started this." 

When fees are collected, they are deposited back in Goldsboro's general fund, so police have no monetary incentive to enforce the rule other than the cost of their time and gasoline, Hopper said. 

Sheriff Carey Winders said Wayne County might not be able to enforce rules Goldsboro can because of the differences between county and city government. 

"If somebody ... can't remember the code continuously, they've got to do something," Winders said. "We certainly are looking at" fees for false alarms. 

Winders said he might present a plan for such a system to Wayne County commissioners in the next few months.