Council Takes Steps to Tighten Penalties for False-Alarm Calls

Hoping to reduce or at least underwrite thousands of costly false-alarm calls to police, the Los Angeles City Council moved Wednesday to impose fines sooner on residents and business owners who summon help needlessly.

Despite the objections of the security alarm industry, the proposal sent to the city attorney’s office for review calls for alarm system owners to be fined $80 for each false alarm after the second call within 12 months. Police currently impose the fine after the fourth such call.

“Two (false alarms) should be enough,” Councilwoman Rita Walters said. “It’ll be like the Auto Club: If you call them too often, they tell you to buy a new car.”

Industry representatives were irate about the stricter fines, which they said disgruntled customers may force them to absorb.

“It’s too drastic . . . and there’s no rationale for the council to do it, except to make more money than they really need,” said Vince Nigro, president of the Los Angeles Burglar and Fire Alarm Assn.

According to police, 95% of the 161,000 alarm calls made last year were false, making up nearly one-fifth of all calls for police service and costing the city an estimated $2.8 million in lost police time.

Council members acknowledged Wednesday that the proposed ordinance, expected to be enacted this fall, will not eliminate false alarms, which are generally triggered by human error, faulty equipment or bad weather. But the new law may lead to fewer human errors and put indirect pressure on alarm companies to improve the technology or hasten repairs, council members said. State law prohibits the city from imposing the fines directly on the alarm companies, even though they are responsible for false alarms caused by faulty equipment.

The proposal, co-authored by council members Marvin Braude, Laura Chick and Mark Ridley-Thomas, also would make it a misdemeanor--punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and a year in jail--to fail to register a residential or commercial burglar alarm with police, which costs $31 annually. Currently, only about one-third of the 300,000 systems in Los Angeles are registered.

Owners of unregistered alarm systems would be fined after the first false alarm under a slightly harsher system than the one proposed for registered owners.