LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Alarm companies in Lee County, Fla., will have to sign a dealer pledge of best practices for burglar alarms if the sheriff’s office adopts its first alarm ordinance. The ordinance is expected to be approved sometime in April, says David Bonsall, chief of the sheriff’s office’s operations bureau.
Some of the requirements under the ordinance include initiating second-call verification on all burglar alarm signals and installing control panels and motion detectors that comply with the Security Industry Association’s (SIA) false alarm reduction standard for both products. The ordinance will also enable the sheriff’s office to not respond to chronic false alarm offenders, and fine alarm companies if they don’t comply with all of the ordinance requirements.
Members of the Alarm Association of Florida (AAF) and the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) worked with Bonsall and others at the sheriff’s office in drafting the ordinance. Much of it is based on an alarm ordinance in another Florida county overseen by a sheriff’s deputy who has been active with the AAF.
