L.A. Battles to Regain Control Over Security Alarms : Safety: State has sole authority to regulate the industry, but council panel wants an ordinance to give city power to crack down on false reports.

Concerned over the thousands of false alarms that police must answer annually, a Los Angeles City Council panel took action Monday to challenge a state law that stripped the city of its power to regulate the security alarm industry.

The council’s Public Safety Committee instructed the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance to regulate and fine security alarm companies and crack down on the owners of alarm systems that generate too many false alarms.

Councilman Marvin Braude, who heads the panel, said the proposed ordinance would conflict with state law and would most likely spark a legal battle with the state over who should regulate security companies.

But he said a clash with the state may be the only way to get the attention of state lawmakers and force them to change a 1978 law that gives the state the sole authority to regulate the security alarm industry.

Braude said he expects criticism from his council colleagues and others for intentionally bringing the city into a legal battle with the state. But he said he will move ahead anyway. “I’m not fearful,” Braude said.

The issue of how to deal with false alarms was first raised last month by Councilwoman Laura Chick, a San Fernando Valley representative, and Police Commissioner Art Mattox. The two proposed laws to crack down on the owners of security systems that repeatedly issue false alarms to police. Many of the systems are not registered with police, as required by city law.

About 95% of the security alarms answered by the Los Angeles Police Department last year were 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 $6 million to $8 million, Mattox said.

Under the proposal by Chick and Mattox, owners of alarm systems are fined $80 for every false alarm after the third call within a 12-month period. The $80 fine now starts after the fourth false alarm.

The ordinance would also crack down on alarm systems not registered with police by establishing an $80 fine for each false alarm by non-registered systems. The annual registration fee is $30.

The Public Safety Committee voted Monday to move ahead with the fines proposed by Chick and Mattox and at the same time challenge the state law that takes away the city’s power to regulate the security industry.

“We are working together on this,” Chick said.

Police and city officials say it has been difficult to get owners of alarm systems to take responsibility for false alarms because the state also requires police to respond to alarms from all security systems, regardless of whether they are registered with police or whether they have a history of false alarm calls.