The City Council April 22 is expected to receive a request from the city’s Burglar Alarm Task Force to review the group’s report on alternative false alarm reduction measures and to have the council ask the Los Angeles Police Commission to consider the recommendations as part of or replace the city’s new alarm policy.

This action takes place despite the police commission saying that it plans to implement its verified (nonresponse) policy within the next couple of months. A May 8 superior court trial hearing has been set related to the lawsuit filed against the city by the Greater Los Angeles Security Alarm Association (GLASAA) and a Los Angeles resident to stop the new policy.

The task force’s report was initially approved last week by a joint panel of the city council’s Public Safety and Education and Neighborhoods committees. Once the city council reviews the report, it can approve it then send it to the police commission to request placing the report on its next agenda for public comment. The commission would then report to the city council within 30 days with its decision.

Jerry Lenander, executive director of GLASAA, says the task force’s report comes very close to the six-point proposal the association had proposed to the group, which is based on the principles of the alarm industry’s Model States and Model Ordinance programs. One of the task force’s recommendations includes imposing a one-year ban on police responses after users generate three false alarms in one year.

“The task force clearly showed that verified response was a policy that had no merits and no basis in fact. The task force did a great job of gathering real information on the policy; they got a lot of great details from the city as far as the number of false alarms,” Lenander says.

Although the joint committees adopted the report, commission officials have stated they would accept the report but are moving ahead with implementing the new policy. Lenander says Sal Rumo, the commission’s interim executive director, told both council committees last week that the new policy would not be implemented until July 1.

City officials, including Joe Gunn, the former police commission executive director who formally retired April 11, estimated May 15 or June 15 as the policy’s effective date.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

Related Content