Modesto Becomes Latest California City to Go to Verified Response

Police in the Northern California city of Modesto have announced that they will be the third city in the state to institute a total verified response policy. As of Sept. 1, police will not put a priority on responding to residential and commercial burglar alarms unless they are verified by the alarm owner or alarm company.

Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden made the announcement on April 6, and does not need the approval of the Modesto City Council to enact the policy.

Modesto, which sits nearly halfway between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park, joins Fremont and the small town of Turlock as the third city in California with a full verified response alarm policy. Turlock’s council approved its policy in late December. The Southern California cities of Los Angeles, Simi Valley and Ventura have limited forms of verified response.

It was recently revealed that Fremont’s burglary rate has gone up 14 percent since it instituted verified response.

The new policy in Modesto will allow for officers to still respond to unverified alarms at their discretion, making Modesto’s verified response policy a little more lenient than Fremont’s.

The city has been in the national news for the past few years, though ominously because of crime. The city was home for two prominent murder victims — Laci Peterson and Chandra Levy. The city has also consistently made its crime mark by leading the nation in car thefts per capita for the plast two years.

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