posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:57 AM
by
klehan
Pierce County in Washington Requires Verified Response
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department recently hired Alarm Tracking and Billing Services of Colorado Springs to administer the county’s revised alarm ordinance.
Under the revised ordinance:
• Alarm users must register their systems annually.
• Alarm companies must verify a burglary alarm before a deputy is dispatched. This can be done by a phone call to the alarm site, by real-time video or by confirming that at least two independent alarms have been triggered.
Verification is not needed for robbery, panic, fire or medical alarms.
• The penalty for a false alarm fee was lowered from $250 to $100.
Costs
• $24 Annual registration fee for commercial or residential alarm
• $12 Annual residential alarm registration fee for owners 65 and older or those with a certified, permanent disability
• $100 Penalty for each false burglary alarm
• $200 Penalty for each false robbery, panic or duress alarm. (The cost is higher because these types of alarms do not require verification. Sheriff's deputies respond lights and sirens to the calls.)
Alarm Tracking and Billing will handle registration of all alarms installed in homes and businesses throughout unincorporated Pierce County. It will bill alarm owners for false alarms since January and will manage a Web site that allows owners to review their information and pay their bills.
The company also can provide reports to the Sheriff’s Department about the effectiveness
of the ordinance.
“It’s extremely comprehensive,” Fajardo said of the company’s services.
The Sheriff’s Department hired ATB Services in May after the County Council revised the alarm ordinance Nov. 27. The new ordinance, which took effect Jan. 1, aims to reduce the number of false alarms in the county.
Officials in Pierce County are warning residents not to panic if they get a notice in the mail asking them to register a burglar alarm or pay for a false alarm and the return address is in Colorado.
“We don’t want people to be concerned that it is a scam,” Pierce County sheriff’s Lt. Cynthia Fajardo said.
To manage the ordinance properly, sheriff’s officials decided to hire a private company, Fajardo said.
“It’s so manpower-consuming,” she said. “Cost effective-wise, it was just better to contract it out.”
The Sheriff’s Department has one employee who coordinates the alarm program.
The department signed a one-year contract with ATB, which also manages Olympia’s alarm ordinance, Fajardo said. The contract has a renewal option.
Under the deal, the company receives most of the annual registration fees: $15 of the $24 regular fee and all of the $12 from the fees applied to seniors and permanently disabled alarm owners.
The remaining money from the registration fees, along with the costs of the false alarms, goes to the county, Fajardo said.
Over the next several weeks, ATB Services will be mailing out registration notifications to alarm users. In August, the company will send out bills for false alarms since Jan. 1.
The Sheriff’s Department still has unpaid bills for false alarms that happened before the fee was lowered this year, Fajardo said.
“Those fines are not waived,” she said.
Users have until December to pay the older bills. If a bill isn’t paid, the Sheriff’s Department will suspend the account.
“We will not respond to alarms at their residence,” Fajardo said.