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American Canyon, CA, Wants to Fine for False Alarms

Too much American Canyon, CA, police department time and manpower is used to respond to false burglar alarms at homes and businesses, and city officials say fines may be the logical answer.

Vice Mayor Ed West asked city staff to research how other cities address the issue so officials can decide on an appropriate approach.

"We had more than 1,000 false alarms last year, and that seems excessive," West said. "It's a common problem in cities, but eventually, most respond by charging the alarm owners for the impact on city resources of responding."

False alarms can have many causes including stormy weather, Police Chief Brian Banducci said.

"We've been responding to four or five false alarms a day since this storm started," he said. Banducci said calls from locations with a history of false alarms are taken less seriously.

Gaining a reputation for triggering false alarms "discredits the integrity of the alarm," and can contribute to an erosion of the attitude needed for effective police response, West said.

Vallejo Police Department Support Services Manager Bill Powell said he agrees that 1,000 false alarms in a year is excessive.

"We get about 6,400 a year, so, for their size, yes, that's a lot," he said.

Powell also agrees that false alarms are a common problem.

"No matter how many alarms you get, 97-plus percent are going to be false, and that's always been the case," he said.

In Vallejo, alarm owners are fined for excessive false alarms, Powell said.

"We've been successful with the fines and with not responding to egregious offenders," he said. "Fremont doesn't respond without verification of a real emergency, and they've been successful with that. And there are cities in (Southern California) that don't respond at all. Private security responds, and if there's a real problem, they call police."

In Vallejo, false alarm fines range from $155 for an intrusion alarm to $311 for a hold-up alarm, Powell said.

"The difference is in the seriousness of the call," he said. "A hold-up alarm is supposed to be triggered when someone comes in with a gun and tries to rob a place, so we send four officers, set up a perimeter and expect to confront an armed person."

False alarms can also come from a lack of proper device maintenance or forgetting to re-calibrate if changes occur, Powell and Banducci said.

"Dust near the sensor can set them off. So can dead batteries," Powell said. "A new pet or family member of a different height. Lots of things. We had a government office here that was having lots of false alarms, and after extensive investigation, we finally determined that the heavy trucks driving by were setting it off."

The Vallejo Police Department also offers a false alarm awareness class that can be completed online in about 20 minutes, Powell said.

Vallejo Municipal Code allows those who successfully complete the course to submit a certificate in lieu of paying a false alarm penalty.

Fines might help mitigate the problem in American Canyon, Banducci said.

"Maybe assessing fines would provide people the incentive they need to keep the equipment properly maintained," he said.