LOS ANGELES – Verified response in Los Angeles was expected to go into effect this month, the Los Angeles Police Department said back in February, but city officials say that’s more likely to happen in May or June.

The Los Angeles Police Commission had set the effective date for April 15. But at press time, the city’s burglar alarm task force committee still had to meet a couple more times before submitting its report to the city council, which is then scheduled to meet on April 20 to request that the Los Angeles Police Commission implement some or none of the recommendations in the report.

This procedure was approved by the police commission at its Feb. 4 meeting.  Although it unanimously voted on the new policy that day, it also gave the city council 60 days from that date to form a task force to come up with alternative false alarm reduction measures.

At press time, Joe Gunn, police commission executive director and a member of the task force, said the Los Angeles Police Department was in the process of alerting its officers to the new policy. “We are hesitant on any motion, but in any event we’re starting to prepare educational materials for the public and planning for the training. We expect the policy to be implemented May 15 or June 15. It all depends on what comes out of the task force.”

Interestingly, at its last meeting, the task force received for the first time a breakdown of false alarms in the city.  According to the city’s report, more than 100,000 false alarms occured within city limits in 2002.

“What the report showed was that the 106,000 false alarms in 2002 came from 48,000 properties,” says Jerry Lenander, a spokesman for the Greater Los Angeles Security Alarm Association (GLASAA). “So 15 percent to 20 percent of properties caused all the false alarms, which means 80 percent had no dispatch for police at all.”

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