Rethink Burglar Alarms In Tracy

TRACY, It is back to the drawing board, but not for a total redesign, just some fine tuning, for a proposed burglar alarm policy that city officials hope will reduce the number of false alarms Tracy Police respond to.

The Tracy City Council told city staff members they liked the idea of fines and annual permits, but also to look into requiring building permits before alarm systems are installed.

The council also asked Tracy Police Capt. Mike Maciel to work with alarm industry representatives and to develop a way to regulate who can and cannot install alarms in the city.

I think its important we work with the alarm companies and the police department to make this a win-win situation for everybody in the city -- from business centers to homeowners, Councilwoman Irene Sundberg said.

Modeling the policy on one used in Modesto, Maciel hoped to cut the number of false alarm responses almost in half by requiring alarm users to obtain an annual permit from the city, requiring that the alarm holder or a representative also respond to the alarm, such as burglar alarm,intruder alarm etc,and adding incremental fines.

Maciel said it was an issue that has many tentacles and laid out the different level of responses available for the council.

In verified responses, local law enforcement is saying to the alarm holder and alarm company, this is your problem, well come when you make sure something is wrong,'" Maciel said. In enhanced responses, the alarm company is saying were going to try harder to find out what happened, and failing that, it is still local law enforcements problem.

Under confirmed response, at least philosophically, were saying is its both of our problems, so were coming if you’re coming.

Tracy police answer more than 5,000 alarm calls per year and 98 percent of them prove to be false, resulting in a cost of $200,000 to the city, the equivalent of two full-time officers, according to citydocuments.

Under the proposal by Maciel, if the alarm holder is unavailable or unwilling to respond to an alarm, police will not respond either. After five false alarms in a 12-month period or a second incident of alarm holder not responding, police will ignore the call, according to a staff report.

Alarm holders also could be fined if they do not have a permit. Police will not respond again until a one is filed. Fines could also be levied if the alarm holder fails to respond after saying they would, and if there are successive false alarms, according to the report.

In the past 90 days, Tracy police responded to 967 burglar alarms, Police Chief David Krauss said. If the alarm policy proposed by Maciel had been in place police, they would not have responded to 427 alarms, resulting in a savings of 569hours in manpower, Krauss said.

David ZHENG is the CEO of http://www.anenc.com .