LOS ANGELES : Tougher Penalties Sought for False Security Alarms
Councilwoman Laura Chick and Police Commissioner Art Mattox on Tuesday proposed toughening penalties on owners of business and home security systems responsible for hundreds of thousands of false alarm calls that keep police from responding to real crimes.
About 95% of the security alarms responded to by the Los Angeles Police Department last year turned out to be false, triggered either by human error, faulty equipment or bad weather, according to police and city officials. Police responded to 153,000 false alarm calls last year, at a cost of about $6 million to $8 million in wasted work hours, Mattox said.
Under the proposal introduced Tuesday to the City Council, owners of alarm systems must pay an $80 fine for each false alarm after the third false alarm within a 12-month period. Now, the $80 fine starts after the fourth false alarm. The proposal instructs the city attorney to draft an ordinance within 30 days and return it to the City Council for approval.
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