MILTON, Ga. — The Milton (Ga.) City Council has revised its monitored alarm ordinance to clarify when police will dispatch, along with adopting an escalating fine schedule and other changes.
The ordinance mandates that monitored alarms and alarm companies be registered with the city, located about 40 miles north of Atlanta. Police will not dispatch to an alarm at a property 30 days delinquent on a fine. However, police will respond to 911 emergency calls or upon verification by the alarm contractor or end user that the alarm was set off by criminal activity.
There is a penalty of $100 for unregistered alarms.
The alarm monitoring company must try to verify an activated alarm by placing phone calls to the user at two different numbers prior to alerting law enforcement, except in cases of a panic or robbery-in-progress alarm, or if a crime has been verified by video and/or audible means.
The new schedule of fines is $50 for the third false alarm, $100 for the fourth and $150 for the fifth and subsequent false alarms within a permit year. The previous penalty was a $150 fine for the second and any subsequent false alarm within a 12-month period.
The changes correct conflicting language in a previous ordinance and institute best practices provided by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP) and Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC), according to a city council agenda memo provided by the police department.
