It
’s time to make sure that burglar alarm is fine-tuned and that
you know how to operate it correctly: the financial consequences of
having it go off unnecessarily are now more severe.
It’s time to make sure that burglar alarm is fine-tuned and that you know how to operate it correctly: the financial consequences of having it go off unnecessarily are now more severe.
Property or business owners with burglar alarms within the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s jurisdiction still won’t be charged for their first false alarm. But any subsequent false alarms over the next 12 months’ time will now cost the owner $100 instead of the current $50.
The new fee will allow the department to recover the costs of responding to false alarms, officials said.
The office currently responds to all police alarm calls, with two deputies dispatched to each call.
The number of false alarms within Sheriff’s jurisdiction have probably doubled within the last three years, said Cindy Codrinton, who collects the data for the Sheriff’s office. She estimated the department will receive 600 to 700 false alarms within a calendar year.
“It’s a big problem,” Codrinton said. “They’re in a lot of residences. It’s user error a lot of the time … We’re just getting call after call.”
Responding to such calls can also eat up more time for deputies, who often have to drive farther in their rural jurisdictions – such as the Los Gatos mountains or Mt. Madonna area – to reach the origin of an alarm than a city officer. The journey itself can sometimes take up to an hour in remote areas, said Deputy Terrance Helm, a department spokesman.
Several police departments around the country have recently adopted “no response” policies for burglar alarms that mean that officers will only respond once the alarm’s authenticity is verified by the representative of a home or business.
