LYON COUNTY, Nev. – The Lyon County Board of Commissioners voted to revise a county alarm system code that will require intrusion alarm systems for businesses and residences to be registered.
Last week’s decision follows previous discussions at recent meetings between the board and Lyon County Sheriff Al McNeil who approached the officials with a request to impose regulations about the increasing number of false alarms from the county and the rising costs to taxpayers associated with false alarms, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports.
“We do have an alarm problem, and the taxpayers demand and expect fiscal responsibility from not only me as the sheriff but from you as the board for the dollars you entrust to me in my operation,” McNeil told the newspaper, emphasizing there is no constitutional mandate for any of his deputies to go out on a call related to any false alarms.
“It is a service we have provided, and I believe it is a good service we should continue,” he said.
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Alarm users will be responsible for maintaining their premises and ensuring they minimize false alarms as much as they can, respond to the system site within 30 minutes upon notification from the sheriff’s office and seek to prevent runaway alarms. As stated in the ordinance, multiple alarms caused by one malfunction in the system for up to 12 hours would be considered only one false alarm, after which users will be assessed civil penalties for each additional false alarm activated in the system.
Penalties will be established by the commissioners and can be amended by resolution, but after an alarm site has activated six alarm responses, the alarm administrator, or company, can notify the user in writing that the alarm will be suspended, according to the report.
McNeil said if a user accidentally sets off an alarm and manages to turn it off prior to a deputy’s arrival at the premise, the user remains in the clear as far as any penalty.
“But once a deputy gets there and determines there is no criminal activity and determines it was operator error by the user, then they deem it as a false alarm, at which time I believe we have a responsibility to attempt to collect, reasonably, some of those expenses in responding to that false alarm,” McNeil said.
The board passed the ordinance in a 5-0 vote.
