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The Danville Police Department receives more calls to respond to burglar alarms than any other call for service — and 98 percent of the alarms are false.
Although false alarms have been the No. 1 call for service for the past three years, an alarm registry program has decreased the number of calls by approximately 150 since its inception in January 2012. There are approximately 900 residential alarms in Danville, which accounted for 30 percent of all false alarm calls in 2012.
“My general feeling about alarms is not to complain that some of them are false…it doesn’t mean that they’re not effective,” said Crime Prevention Specialist Carol Burroughs. “The beauty of Danville (Police Department) is that you have the luxury of being a full service agency. Other agencies are being cut and they might not even respond.”
Danville’s alarm registration program stipulates that fines can be assessed when a home or business alarm sends out a false signal. According to reports conducted in 2010, the ordinance was expected to save the Danville Police Department $69,000 and 754 hours of work per year.
Police received 2,115 false alarm calls in 2011, and 2,297 such calls in 2010; officials did not track false alarm calls in 2009 or 2008. Officers determined that all calls in 2010 were either false or triggered by unsecured doors or windows, making all alarm calls unfounded.
Burroughs added that the main goal of the registry — which is voluntary but levies a $50 fine on third-time false alarm offenders — is compliance. The Danville police want to encourage residents to be aware of when their alarms need to be serviced, that all proper parties have the correct code or if alarms are hyper-sensitive.
“Our goal is to make sure that the alarms that are are working properly and people are knowledgeable,” Burroughs said.
According to a report by then-crime specialist Mike Wells, Danville police receive alarm calls from approximately 175 different monitoring companies and responded to 1,043 different locations in 2010, accounting for approximately 20 minutes of police time. Since its inception, the registration program has proven successful in tracking over-active alarms.
“The alarm permit program was kind of set up so that we’re partnering with the client, whether its a business or residence, and that alarm company so that we’re able to track those alarms,” Burroughs said. “It brings us into that triangle kind of environment. We now have methodology to contact those companies if we need to.”
Burroughs said that fine revenue has been nominal, estimating that the department had received about $10,000 in third-time offense fines. Danville’s cost of violation is about half of those in San Ramon, Concord, Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill, Burroughs noted. With the exception of San Ramon, all cities charge a yearly permit fee where Danville does not.
“The registration is meant to help modify behavior and encourage people to be an active participant in the alarm business. The homeowner has to be responsible,” she said.
For more information on Danville’s alarm permit process, visit www.danville.ca.gov/Permits/Alarm.
If the alarm registry is voluntary, as Burroughs is quoted, why did the Town repeatedly send letters to me telling me we HAD to register our alarm?
It’s a bunch if baloney. Why would someone who already pays for monitoring register with the police department? I don’t see how “registering” an alarm is beneficial in any way. What good does a call from the police department do that the monitoring company doesn’t?
Everyone who has a mechanical alarm which causes the police to respond to a non-crime should have to pay for that service – each time. If I read this correctly 100% of the mechanical alarms that the police responded to in 2010 were “unfounded.” Why are the rest of us paying for unnecessary services demanded by these people which make the police put aside their legitimate responsibilities to respond to false alarms?
This may be off topic somewhat but….. I have had to call the Danville police on a few occasions in the past, and their response times are just crazy. When I needed to call them when I lived in Danville ( less than a minute from the station) it took them 20 minutes to arrive. But when I gave up on them I called the contra costa sheriff ( who’s dispatch is in Martinez) they arrived in 5 minutes. Why is this?
As of recent I have been listening to the Contra Costa police scanner to try and understand what is causing such delays is a reportedly minimal crime rate in the areas. Now for those with alarms that go off when you are home and are false alarms the dispatcher has those dates and times at their fingertips. The dispatcher informs the officer of the amount of false calls and reccomends to the officer to code out and ignore. If you are paying a private company and now being asked to do this I ask why. If you wish to get a small wake up call on what they really have on each person and place I suggest to download a police scanner app and listen. I am sure the criminal element it doing this now because they talk about everything personal on each stop to how many false codes are at each resident that has one at that time.
Just my thoughts, good luck and happy listening.