About 22,000 times a year, the Virginia Beach Police Department gets a call that a burglar alarm is going off. At an average of 60 a day, that’s more calls than the department gets for anything else.
Police in Suffolk get 6,000 alarm calls a year, or 16 a day.
Trouble is, it’s almost always a false alarm. Police zoom out to the house or business, and there’s no burglar.
Irked by burning thousands of staff hours for nothing, police want cities to increase false alarm fees. They hope the penalties will force owners to get their alarms working right.
“We need to make sure folks understand how much time this eats up,” said Jim Cervera, Virginia Beach deputy police chief. “If you had a business and 21,000 times a year someone came into your business and didn’t buy anything, you’d be asking, 'What am I doing wrong?’ ”
Virginia Beach is proposing to raise false alarm fees from $25 to $150 for homes and $250 for businesses. The fee would kick in on the third offense within 12 months.
Suffolk, which has no fee now, is looking to charge $25 for a second false alarm within a six-month period, $50 for the third and $100 for any after that.
Police say they just want to recoup costs. For example, Beach police estimated they spent about $320,000 responding to false alarms in 2006.
That year, 20,755 of the 22,266 burglar alarm calls for service – 93 percent – were false alarms. In Suffolk, 5,700 of the 6,000 calls – 95 percent – in 2007 were unwarranted.
The most egregious offenders in Virginia Beach are businesses. In a recent 11-month period, 187 businesses generated 3,480 calls, or an average of almost 19 each, according to police research.
Politicians will make the final call when city budgets are approved. Suffolk Councilman Jeff Gardy said fees proposed in his city didn’t sound “that exorbitant.”
Beach Councilmen Bob Dyer and Jim Wood weren’t so sure.
“I can see the rationale for it, but it might be excessive,” Dyer said. “If somebody has a chronic problem, then we should address it aggressively, but right now I feel that fee is sticker shock.”
The Beach City Council will hear more about the issue at an April 29 work session.
“The only way I would support it,” Wood said, “is if there are safeguards in place to help people who make legitimate mistakes. We don’t want to target people who have a false alarm because it’s a windy day, or they didn’t get to the panel fast enough, or the power went out.”
Alarm experts said all those things and more – even helium balloons, dogs and cats – trigger motion detectors that lead to false alarms, which the industry calls “false dispatches.”
“You try to keep your dog in the basement, but you forget. You don’t close your door all the way and the wind blows it open,” said Mary Kay Wakefield of the Richmond Alarm Company and a vice president of the Virginia Burglar and Fire Alarm Association. “Huge amounts of people don’t know their password. Maybe grandma and grandpa comes in from out of town; a kid home from college.”
Wakefield, who is working with Virginia Beach on its proposed fee ordinance, said her group supports stiffer fees.
“We think false alarms are a huge drain on our communities,” she said.
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5555, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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recooping costs?
What costs? You are either paying the cops to respond to false alarms or your paying them to sit in a coffee shop your paying either way, the cheif isn't gonna send a couple cops home without pay just because of less false alarms on a slow night. I always see cops parked at coffee houses for an hour at a time. Pretty long break if ya ask me. Besides that if they're responding to a false alarm thats 1 less writing me a parking ticket, In MHO thats saving me money, because the cop gets payed either way.
Problem?
The police are exagerating the problem. For 8 months out of the year the beach has police officers tripping all over themselves. When the Summer arrives you can't find a police officer except at the oceanfront. So should we charge the businessowners at the oceanfront a fee for the extra police force that's required to cover that part of town? I don't think so!
The police are on the street anyway. So they have to answer a call. Do you think that if there was no alarm problems, that there would be less officers on the street? I doubt it! Without the alarm systems cities would have to double their manpower just to cover burglaries. Residents that have smoke protection with their alarm have had their houses saved thru early detection. There is a good and bad side to every issue. This is just another ploy by the city to sqeeze more money out of the already overtaxed citizen.
Re Blogging House ,....... Another bite......Troll Trap.
I have another entry where I used the wrong word entirely. And another with a typo. And 2 with intentional misuses &/or "twisting" of words....If you click on my name & view comments, & wish to bother & "sift" through them all, you may be able to find them. A prize may be awarded..shipped only locally...of course..
"Some Pig" Charlotte's Web lol
pinch for funding
When you simply must spend a couple million on a pedestrian bridge for those who can't look both ways, all other services are low priorities!
All fees are increasing. Beach feeling the pinch ?
Virginia Beach is now charging $500, yes $500, for each student to go to summer school this year. That is 2 times the amount from last year. Great way to keep the kids off the streets during the summer months. Good job city leaders.
Assessments went up an average of 1.8% even though most all houses cannot be sold for what they were priced at last year.
Now false alarm fees are rocketing to $150.
Seems like the Beach is in trouble for funding and raising all sorts of fees outrageously !
RE Nice Area.....
Bragging.....Not Complaining....No Bite...lol
I don't dislike the rich...I don't like morons...
Nice post jimmyf. I can not begin to know anything about you except for what you write. And what you've written tells me an awful lot...
BTW: I have an ADT system in my home and I'm not rich...but that really wouldn't matter much to you. Have a nice weekend Jimmy...
When did houses learn to blog?
Quote "I am actually one of the few houses on my block"
We now have blogging houses LOL!!
ha this is so funny
the police are talking about raising the fees on fake calls we should raise the fees on every inocent person killed!
Sounds like a nice area
Quote "Where I live, I am actually one of the few houses on my block that has never had a dwelling burglary, in the last decade. I have had items stolen from my vehicle, & front yard."
Wow...sounds like a nice place to live.
Relax, Bill
It certainly sounds to me like William Bailey has some issues with the so-called "rich" people or rather, those who he thinks make more than him.
So If we use Bailey's logic, how about everyone who attempts suicide, everyone who has a domestic battery or domestic violence situation or someone who appoints themselves the neighborhood 911 caller, reporting every small infraction of their neighbors, we send them a bill, too? How about a sliding scale where the battered wife has to pay on a sliding scale for every time she needs police help?
I'll grant that if you can't get your alarm system right, you should pay a reasonable fee for false alarms, but Mr. Bailey seems to hold those he deems as "rich" in contempt and only wants to punish. I say we should punish those who are a real strain on the system-the poor and the criminal element.
I'd rather have
an officer come out for nothing, than not have one there for a crime. Honestly, just charge the people whatever each false alarm costs the city. The more yours goes off, the more you'll have to pay. So frequent offenders ARE paying more. The taxpayers won't pay for it, and people are protected just in case. I have had a monitored alarm with cameras for decades (and if the cameras are disconnected, I have an off-site record of who did it) and have only had 2 false alarms...one for a door that the wind blew open and one for a "fire" which was just steam from a shower. I wouldn't have minded a bill for those at all. I'm just glad to know my possessions are protected just in case (and the "just in case" did happen once...my house caught on fire and almost everything was saved...including my cats!).
Intimidating Dogs and Rich People
Rich people are not the only ones who utilize these services. Some people have empty houses for the majority of the day while they are at work and they want their possessions protected. Some people have small children and babies, and really don't see value in placing a potentially dangerous dog (or even a nice dog that just looks intimidating), in the house with their young children. An alarm system is a personal choice based on many different reasons, and just because you're not in a position to need one, or you don't see the value of one, it doesn't mean that they are not useful. Anyway, even without a ton of false alarms going off everyday the police still wouldn't be around because so many have become desensitized to non-violent crimes. When a person needs an officer for anything that doesn't involve a gun, it'll take an officer at least an hour and a half to show up.
Alarm Race Condition
I was thinking about it on my way to work after seeing the headline again. You could race condition the alarm panel! Step 1, call phone line with alarm panel connected and let phone ring once and hang up, or whatever the procedure is to trigger panel to call home to it's company. Step 2, call the same number again, right as panel starts to dial out. Step 3, provide recording of dial tone, so panel thinks it has a real phone loop. You will hear the modem chip dial digits to call home ... log them if you want. Step 4, answer with YOUR modem, using "ATA" command. Step 5, you are now connected to someone else's alarm panel by computer -- while it thinks it's calling home to the alarm company. You could even call home to the company on a 2nd modem and using some simple software bridge the connections, and sit in the middle watching all of the data communications between panel and company.
Bill Them EVERYTIME- Taxpayer Abuse!
I say we bill them every time a police, fire or ambulance is sent on a false alarm. The taxpayers pay tens of millions for public safety protection so why do the alarm companies get a FREE response without giving any of the monthly fees back to the taxpayers? The alarm companies can outsource their own private security force instead of abusing the public’s limited manpower and equipment.
False alarms steal the police officers and emergency fire/ems crews from real emergencies everyday. There is no reason to continue to support the alarm company for failure to manage their business and clientele.
Bill those who can afford the luxury of a private alarm system and let the regular taxpayers receive the public safety response they already fund. No more FREE rides for false alarms! ADT, Brinks and the others are not hurting for profit and they have abused and relied on the taxpayers long enough…
The Best Alarm
The best burglar alarm is a hound dog and a shotgun.
I'm with contractorva
I have a house full of dogs. I lived in a bad neighborhood, in a downstairs townhome with windows that didn't lock, by myself for 5 years before I bought my house. Several of my neighbors were robbed and occasionally a criminal ran through my back yard. They never attempted to get into my house though, easy as it would have been. They stayed away because I had a house full of intimidating dogs. These dogs are like my kids but they are powerful and they are not afraid to defend me or my home, their home. Criminals in my neighborhood knew that and they know it now. I believe it's the only reason my house has never been burglarized. My home came with a security system, but I didn't bother to activate it. I don't need it.
know the risks before you buy
An alarm system is not an excuse for a homeowner to become complacent. The police are not here to guard your house. Ever wonder why the cops are never around when you need one? They're checking on someone's false alarm, that's why! The excuses cited in the article are just that; excuses for lazy people who are too complacent to monitor their own alarm system.
The alarm companies don't care that there are so many false alarms, they're making their money as long as the homeowner pays the bills. I propose fining the alarm companies as well as the homeowners. Maybe that'll get the companies to quit making excuses for their customers and working to ensure that when they call the police it's for a legitimate break-in and not a false alarm.
We have a bigger more expensive problem................
work on recouping my tax dollars for these illegals here in our hospitals, jails, schools and social service system!
False alarms
The problem is not responding to a alarm and it turns out to be false. The problem is responding to the same alarm 5 times a day for 3 out of 7 days a week. If a higher fine is put in place maybe citizens will do what is needed for a change and keep their alarms working properly. 90% of false alarms are repeat offenders. The same alarms going off all the time.
Just a few questions
I somewhat agree that something needs to be done about people that have a chronic problem with this. How about a fee that doubles with every occurrence. $0 for the first time $25 for the second, $50 for the third.
The second thought is that who keeps track of how many times it happens? Who do I call if I want to dispute that this is only the second and not the third time? When does the 12 months start? Is it January to December or does the timer start from the first false alarm?
If I have no false alarms for 11 months and then I am gone for a week and the alarm goes off every day for some strange reason that I cannot get back to fix in time, will I come home to a huge bill for the false alarm fees?
The fees should be raised...
...but for those of you that have these systems, I hope you realize the auto calls from the panel are priortized last for an officer to investigate (parking tickets have a higher priority). It can take hours for an officer to show up.
You're better off with a shotgun inside and a large canine outside than to have one of these systems
Sounds rather small
16 alarms a day for 500,000 residents doesn't sound like much of a problem. I guess if you want to rob a place, keep tripping their alarm for a few weeks, wait until they turn it off to avoid fines, and go nuts. If they want fines, it should only be for negligent maintenance of the alarm system .
Alarms, Dogs. Police Response
No Trespassing. That is what is clearly posted at my house, on all sides. There is no alarm. There is however a team of 4 extremely fearless large dogs, that would probably take exception to an intruder. If a burglary were to occur, the dogs would by no means set off any alarm, but, I would hope the burglar brought a new pair of pants, if they were around to wear them later. Where I live, I am actually one of the few houses on my block that has never had a dwelling burglary, in the last decade. I have had items stolen from my vehicle, & front yard. Police did not respond to the call in person. I had to go to the station to file the report. I'm not sure if canines are the best option for all businesses, but, in my opinion, for residential, they are the best security. I sleep very soundly. The dogs are awake in an instant.
Virginia "Nickel & Dime Ya" Beach
Do you see whats happening here? The wonderful council has spent the city budget and more. So they will have to Nickel & Dime their citizens to make up for it. 2% Assessment increase? No cost of living rasies for 2 yrs for City employees? Hey, but we got a 50 million dollar theater at town center outta the deal, oh wait, they are outta money too. Time to TRIM the fat, and not the budget, we need to first start with fat in council!
Raise Them
Why should my tax dollars pay for someone's false alarm, repeatedly.
No, make it $2500
No, make it $2500 so only the wealthy can afford to have them! I've always been skeptical of the systems that call the police automatically. It's an expensive service to pay for every month, and I've always felt the noise was the deterrence. BTW, the technology behind it is so amazingly simple, the alarm panel dials the company with a 1200 baud modem and reports the information to their computer, then they call the local police. Not something that would require $35 a month. If you've never seen it, find the 2nd episode of "Tiger Team" that aired on court TV. They took down a business alarm system like no ones business.... Accidentally set it off when breaking in, killed the outside phone line _AND_ the cellular backup before it ever phoned home.
Make it a $500 fine
Make it a $500 fine after the second offense. That should help cut down on the problem.