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New Brunswick Council Rejects False Alarm Rules

The Township Council rejected an ordinance Tuesday that would have established new fines for false alarms from residential and commercial security systems.

The measure was defeated by a vote of 4-0, with Councilman Chris Kilmurray not in attendance.

Council members said the intent of the ordinance was to reduce the number of false alarms police respond to, but the proposed law’s fines were excessive.

The proposed alarm ordinance would have resulted in fines for false alarms, beginning with the first incident. Alarm owners would have been charged $25 for the first incident, $50 for the second, $75 for the third, $100 for the fourth and $200 for every incident after that. Owners also would have had the option of taking an online alarm education course, in lieu of paying a fine, but only for the first incident.

Under the current law, fines start at $50 for each false alarm after the sixth incident, $150 for each false alarm over the 10th and $500 for each alarm over the 20th incident.

Council members said that their own concerns over the proposed ordinance, as well as negative feedback from the public, weighed in their decision.

”This is just too onerous to the businesses and residents in its current state,” Councilman Joe Camarotta said.

”I’ve received so many e-mails concerning this,” said Councilwoman Carol Barrett said. “The intent is wonderful, but we really need to spend more time looking at this.”

In 2007, the South Brunswick police received about 3,800 calls from alarm system, 94 percent to 98 percent of which were false alarms, according to Capt. Harry Delgado.

Capt. Delgado said it usually costs between $36 and $100 to respond to each false call. That includes fuel and officers’ salaries, in addition to having police attention diverted from other possible incidents.

Many of these false alarms are caused by repeat offenders, he added.