The Edgewood, Ohio, city council has passed a new ordinance aimed at reducing false alarms and 911 dispatches, according to a report in The Community Recorder.
Under the new ordinance, which was passed Dec. 4, residents and businesses are not allowed more than two false alarms or 911 calls in a given 30-day period, or more than five in a year. Each violation is punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $300, with the fines increasing incrementally as violations stack, according to the news report.
Edgewood Police Chief Anthony Kramer introduced the ordinance in order to address the nearly 200 false 911 calls in 2006. Kramer told the newspaper that many false dispatches are a consequence of homeowners unknowingly triggering their own alarms and then leaving. If the homeowner is not at his or her residence to receive the alarm monitoring company’s verification call, the monitoring company is forced to contact the local police. Each false dispatch typically requires 10-18 minutes of the responding officer’s time, according to the report.
