False Alarm Update: Verified Response in Effect in Yakima

YAKIMA, Wash.

Verified response is now in effect for Yakima, Wash., which
lies 150 miles southeast of Seattle. Yakima officers will
no longer respond to home and business burglar alarms
without verification from the company that supplied the
alarm. The new policy went into effect June 2.

The Yakima City Council had
approved the new alarm
ordinance March 3
, but added the condition that the
policy be tried on a two-year trial basis.

Yakima Police Captain Jeff Schneider told KAPP-TV that
verified response will free up his department from having
to respond to false alarms. “We would rather send officers
to actual calls and real events where they can be helping
people instead of chasing false alarms around the city,”
says Schneider, who adds alarm companies can get to homes
and businesses before the police can.

In other false alarm news:

VISTA, Calif.:The city council in the town that lies
north of San Diego adopted on June 1 increased fees for
false alarms.

The city will now charge a one-time $51 permit fee after a
first false alarm. The will not be a fine for a second
false alarm in a calendar year, but an alarm customer who
has a third false alarm will be charged $100. The fees go
up to $200 for the fourth false alarm and $500 for each
false alarm after that.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.: The coastal city 100 miles
north of Los Angeles is considering charging fines for
false alarms.

Santa Barbara police have proposed that three false alarm
calls in a year would force a $50 fine on an alarm customer
for that false alarm and each thereafter. After 10 false
alarms, the fine would jump to $200.

LEE COUNTY, Fla.: Deputies in the Florida county
that includes Ft. Myers are praising an alarm ordinance
passed more than a year ago for declining the amount of
security alarm calls by 28 percent and reducing false
alarms.

Lee County Sheriff’s officials told the News-Press
that they have saved officer time that is the equivalent of
three full-time deputies.

The Lee County ordinance, which passed in March 2003 and
went into effect last July, put in place a false alarm fine
structure that ranges from nothing for the first false
alarm offense to $400 for a 10th false dispatch. The Lee
County sheriff will be conduct false alarm reduction
courses for residents later this month.

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