False Alarm Fines for Business
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 11:00
In the past couple of weeks, I have talked to a couple of different business owners who have paid fines to their local government because the local police have responded to a business because of a security alarm system that was activated. Both of these businesses used a third party monitoring company who notified the local police after receiving the alarm signal. The police responded and found no activity that they felt was related to a break-in or other type of security incident and wrote it off as a false alarm. According to local ordinances, both business owners were allowed a couple of false alarms per year before they received a fine which was over one hundred dollars in both cases.
False Alarm Ordinances
A number of years a go a variety of communities enacted similar types of ordinances or laws to reduce wasted police resources as well as to motivate the business owner to modify or change their security alarm system so there would be fewer false alarms to respond to. There is some question as to the effectiveness of this method in dealing with the issue? The problems I have with it are multifaceted. First, does a local government have the right to fine business owners? If we as private citizens called the police because we thought our home was being broken into and it turned out to be some type of animal or our neighbor’s dog, there would be no fine. Local police are there to respond and help the citizens of that community so why should a business be fined when the officer thinks it is a false alarm?
Not Always a False Alarm
I was not always on the right side of the law growing up, and it does not take many times of setting off a security alarm before the business owner gets tired of being called out in the middle of the night and shuts down the security alarm system until it can be serviced or inspected. Continually probing an alarm system until someone thinks there is something wrong with the system or gets tired of responding to it and shuts the system down temporarily is an easy way to beat the system. A security alarm system may have also done its job and scared off the intruder, meaning no one is around by the time the police arrive. If there is no indication of a break-in attempt, it is usually written off as a false alarm. Just because the police or others don’t see anything does not mean there was not an intruder or other security incident.
What Can a Business Do?
To reduce the problem of fines, there are things a business can do. If you have external surveillance cameras that are recorded (which they should be), you can go back and look at the recording to see if there was a security incident. If something is found, most communities have processes in place that allow you to appeal the fine. This does take time, and some business owners feel their time is too valuable and would rather just pay the fine. That will have to be a decision you make as a business owner. In my opinion, the principle is sometimes more important than the money. If enough businesses appeal the fine, maybe these type of laws can be shown to be ineffective and can be changed.
Beyond the appeal issue, I would look at a couple of things to reduce the chance of experiencing true false alarms. First, make sure a quality security alarm system is installed. Then, make sure the sensors used are made for the environmental conditions where your business is located and maintain the system with regular service and maintenance.
Lastly, as a business owner you may want to look into the option of alarm verification. Your third party monitoring company would verify that there is an actual security incident before contacting the police department. This can be done with audio or video, depending on the security setup at your business as well as the capabilities of the monitoring company you use.
Leave a comment and let me know what you as a business owner have experienced regarding false alarms. Does your community fine businesses for what they perceive as false alarms? Also, let me know if there is anything in this article you agree or disagree with.
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