Excessive False Alarms Could Cost Terrebonne (La.) Residents Under New Law
Alarm users and companies have the responsibility to keep their alarms in working order under the ordinance.
TERREBONNE PARISH, La. – After a contentious debate, community leaders here passed an ordinance to make excessive false intrusion and fire alarms illegal in parts of the parish.
The new law springs from a rash of false alarms throughout the parish, HoumaToday.com reports. It applies only to excessive false alarms that result from faulty equipment.
The Houma Police Department, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office and all parish fire departments except Fire Protection District 9, Fire Protection District 10, Bayou Blue Fire Protection District and Village East Fire Protection District are included in the ordinance.
More than three false alarms at a single location over the course of a 12-month period will constitute excessive alarms, according to HoumaToday.com. After the fourth alarm, the property owner or alarm company is subject to a $100 fine. The fifth carries a $200 fine, and sixth and any subsequent alarms carry a $400 fine.
Alarm users and companies have the responsibility to keep their alarms in working order under the ordinance. If a problem is apparent, it is the responsibility of the owner to alert proper authorities to help prevent callouts.
Exceptions to the false-alarm allotment include lightning strikes, pressure changes in sprinkler systems, children pulling alarms, accidental smoke detection and deliberately activating an alarm station.
The purpose of the measure is to give police and fire agencies “the ability to compel owners to get their systems serviced and checked,” Bayou Cane Fire Chief Ken Himel said before it was initially proposed. “It just gives us a little more teeth.”
Responding agencies can exercise discretion when it comes to multiple false alarms in a single day when the owners are making a good-faith effort to repair the system, Himel said.
Confusion in the language of the ordinance led to it being discussed and tabled by the Parish Council since August, HoumaToday.com reports.
Several council members expressed concerns that the ordinance included some fire districts, while others were left out.
“I want to know that this is going to be designed for use throughout the parish and that there will be no discretion for fire chiefs to enforce it as they want to,” Councilman John Navy said.
If one department and fire district have the authority to enforce this law, all of them should, Navy said.
Councilman Greg Hood agreed with Navy.
“This is basically like saying we’re going to make a parish-wide ordinance that says only in certain areas you can shoplift and get arrested for it, but other areas you can shoplift and it’s OK,” Hood said.
Parish President Michel Claudet said the ordinance didn’t include all the fire districts because some didn’t want to be included.
“There are some fire departments that wanted to opt out. I’m expecting as the parish grows and they have these problems in that particular district, they’ll come back and want to be included in the future and it can be amended,” Claudet said.
Council Vice Chairman Daniel Babin said if those districts want to opt out, they should be able to.
“I feel like they’re telling us they don’t have that problem in their district and that they’re willing to continue to pay out of their district to send the people out. This all started initially from a cost perspective, that it was costing these fire departments excess dollars,” Babin said.
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