Vancouver police say nine out of 10 calls are false
Glenn Bohn
Sun
VANCOUVER – Vancouver police hope a new bylaw will cut in half the number of false security alarms they respond to — sometimes with guns drawn.
Nine times out of 10, the alarms reported to police turn out to be false.
“If a legitimate owner or staff member is on site, they’re potentially at risk,” Glen Richmond, manager of the police department’s false-alarm reduction program, said Wednesday in an interview.
“I don’t want Granny Goodcookies to be at home making muffins and be confronted by the police or a police dog.”
Since 1993, when the city enacted its first Security Alarm System Bylaw, the number of alarm systems in residential and commercial buildings in Vancouver has doubled, to 56,000.
During the same decade, the number of false alarms reported to police has gone down, to about 13,900 last year from more than 37,000 in 1993.
But police say there are still too many false alarms– most of them caused by user errors, such as a homeowner punching in the wrong code.
Last year, police cancelled 841 security alarm permits because the permit holder had more than four false alarms.
Still, not every alarm is a false alarm.
Last year, 1,200 of the alarms reported to Vancouver police turned out to be valid.
Richmond said the old bylaw — which makes city permits mandatory in any premises with an alarm system, whether monitored or not — worked reasonably well in reducing the number of false alarms. But he’s predicting that the tougher rules and penalties that came into effect last month will reduce the number of false alarms by as much as 25 to 50 per cent over the next two years.
Under the old bylaw, a permit holder was allowed four false alarms within a 12-month period. On the fourth false alarm, the city cancelled the permit. If someone wanted a new permit, they had to launch a successful appeal or pay a hefty fee, in addition to annual fees they pay for the permit.
Under the amended bylaw, someone with an alarm system can now only have three false alarms before they face a financial penalty. The “reinstatement fee” is as much as $90 for residential alarms and $300 for a large business. And if the city pulls the permit a second time, the fees are higher.
The bylaw also has new rules that alarm-monitoring companies have to follow. Under the old bylaw, there was a requirement that the company must “attempt to make contact” with the homeowner or business before calling police. The amended bylaw states the companies “must contact” either the permit holder or another designated person before contacting police. The bylaw calls those contacts a “key-holder reference.”
Richmond said he’s confident the number of false alarms will drop because a study in the Chicago area showed requiring alarm-monitoring companies to make a second phone call led to major reductions of false alarms, ranging from 25 and 56 per cent.
However, Peter Hodson, the owner of Orion Security, one of many companies that installs security alarms, fears police response time — currently averaging 13 minutes — will be longer if the permit holder or the alternative contact can’t be reached immediately.
© The Vancouver Sun 2004