False Alarm Perspectives

Executive Summary

Unnecessary calls for police service due to false burglar alarms have grown into a tremendous problem. Burglar alarms serve as useful deterrents to crime, but the amount of time and money police spend responding to the 7 million to 15 million or more false alarm calls every year has become intolerable to many law enforcement agencies. Projected growth in the use of alarms portends a worsening problem.

False alarms are caused primarily by technological, installation, and user errors. Solutions that are currently being tried or proposed include the following:

• alarm verification
• user training
• installer training
• local ordinances
• state laws
• fines
• permits
• nonresponse by police
• private response
• time-of-day differentiation
• standards
• codes
• repair or upgrading requirements
• better equipment
• dispatch cancellation

Court decisions have raised the question of whether particular false alarm ordinances are clearly written, whether they are fair, and who must pay the fines they levy. 0ther cases have looked at false alarms as the proximate cause of injury to responding police officers.

Many organizations are currently working to reduce the number of false alarms. This document was produced under the auspices of the International Association of Chiefs of Police with funding assistance from the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association and the Central Station Alarm Association.