Arcadia : False Alarm Levies Weighed
Starting Oct. 3, residents and business owners may have to pay penalties for repeated false security alarms.
If a proposed ordinance is approved by the City Council next month, a letter will be sent to homeowners where three false fire or medical alarms have gone off within a year. The fourth and fifth false alarms will carry $50 penalties, and subsequent alarms will cost $100.
Homeowners will be fined $200 on the second false robbery or burglary alarm in a year.
The City Council unanimously approved the penalties recommended by Fire Chief Gerald R. Gardner and Police Chief Neal Johnson. From March 1, 1990, to March 1, 1991, police and fire officials responded to 2,632 alarms, 98% of them false, according to a report by the two officials. They estimated that the false alarms cost the city $76,733.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
