The Public Health, Safety and Judicial Committee on Monday approved increasing fines for false burglar alarms answered by the Police Department and reducing the number of free false alarms per alarm user. The Village Board is slated to vote on the issue Monday.
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If trustees approve the changes, each burglar alarm user would get two fine-free false alarms per calendar year instead of the four false alarms now allowed. Alarm users would pay $25 each for the third and fourth false alarms; $50 each for the fifth through 10th false alarms; and $100 for each false alarm after that. The current ordinance provides for a $25 fine for each false alarm over four in a calendar year.
Police responded to more than 2,700 false alarms in 2000, said Police Chief Melvin Mack. Those calls cost the department about $32,000 in salary expenses, he added. Fewer than 1 percent of all burglar alarm calls are actually caused by a burglar, while 80 percent of the false alarms come from 20 percent of the village’s 1,500 alarm systems.
“We’re concerned that responding to such a high frequency of false alarms, mostly coming from the same places, will make officers complacent about answering alarm calls,” Mack said.
Trustee Tim Hundley suggested enacting separate false alarm policies for business and residential alarm users. “I see the need to lower the number of false alarms, but I don’t want to discourage residents from getting alarm systems,” he said. Trustees agreed to investigate that option after Mack told them homeowners rarely trigger more than two false alarms per year.
The amended alarm ordinance also would let the Police Department revoke alarm permits for alarm users who make no attempt to lower the number of false alarms they generate. Police could then ignore alarm calls from those locations, Mack said. “That would wreak havoc between them and their insurance companies. They’d be hard-pressed to make a good faith effort to fix their systems,” he said.
Police would continue to respond to fire and robbery alarms at those properties, he added.