The Sherriff’s Department of Lexington County, S.C., has asked the County Council to change the current fire alarm law. The department wants to change fines, require written notification of fines and shift the paperwork onto alarm owners or their alarm providers.

The Sherriff’s Department began fining people for false alarms last year, but would like to raise the fines for chronic violators, according to TheState.com.

Under the new law, chronic violators would be fined $300 per alarm after the 10th false alarm, raising the current fine nearly 50 percent. First time offenders would pay half the amount of the current fine at $25 for a false alarm.

Alarm manufacturers would no longer be tracked separately from other false alarms, and penalties would become identical, according to the Web site. Additionally, county officials would no longer have to keep records of residential and commercial security alarms, cutting down the volume of paperwork.

In accordance with the current law, residents or businesses with two false alarm violations who have not been fined, or persistent violators, may be banned from police or firefighter response to alarms.

Emergency vehicles responded to about 800 fewer false alarms during the fiscal year, Public Safety director Bruce Rucker told TheState.com.

False alarm reports have been reduced by 20 percent from last year.

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