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Navajo County, AZ, Wants Alarm Ordinance to Minimize False Dispatches

Residents of the Navajo County, AZ, who habitually have false alarms could now be fined for it. 

At a public hearing during the March 9 supervisors meeting, Sheriff K.C. Clark said of the 857 calls received in 2009, only five of them turned out to be an actual break-in or attempted break-in.

"The Sheriff's Office records showed that we received 14 calls in one day alone," he said. "One address showed 18 alarm calls during 2009."

Deputies responding to those calls aren't available for other service that may be needed, he said.

Clark gave supervisors a paper breaking down the problem. False alarms totaled 852 for the year with an average of 2.3 per day. The Pinetop-Lakeside area was highest with 519 calls, more than half the false alarms. The Heber/Overgaard, Pinedale, Clay Springs area was second with 200. The Show Low, Linden area was third with a much lower number - 67. The Snowflake/Taylor area, logging in 44 calls, was third. 

Winslow at 15 and Holbrook at 12 round out the areas in which the sheriff's office responds. Other communities such as White Mountain Lake, Cedar Hills, Woodruff and Joseph City are combined with the already mentioned areas.

The total addresses with two or more alarm calls was 99, with the total alarm calls 330. If the alarm ordinance was triggered at the second call, 231 violations would occur. Addresses with three or more alarm calls was 49 with a total alarms of 232. Potential violations if triggered at the third call was 134. Addresses with five or more alarm calls was 18 with 128 alarms. If triggered at the fifth call, potential violations if triggered at the fifth call was 56.

"I think this is something we have needed," Board Chairman Jesse Thompson said. "It's a big difference if someone else is really being burglarized or robbed."

Supervisor Jerry Brownlow said there are false alarms in big storms in the South County and asked if there were something that could be done about charging for those.

"We all have concerns about how to do this," Thompson said. 

Clark said an ordinance imposing civil penalties for excessive alarm calls would encourage homeowners to service their faulty alarms.

The ordinance calls for a person responsible for a fourth false alarm to pay a civil penalty of $150. For each false alarm after the fourth, the civil penalty will increase in increments of $200 (for instance, $350 for the fifth and $550 for the sixth).

For false robbery alarms, the person responsible for the fourth false robber alarm will pay a civil penalty of $500 with the penalty increasing in increments of $300 (for instance, $800 for the fifth and $1,100 for the sixth) for each false robbery alarm after the fourth.