Oxnard Class a Revelation on Waste in False Alarms

Lucy Delgado, an accounting clerk at Marian Business Services in Oxnard, had just locked up for the night when she remembered that she had left an important piece of paper inside and dashed back in to grab it.

But she wasn’t quick enough. In less than a minute, police cars were on the scene, responding to the blaring security alarm she had accidentally set off.

Delgado says that it’s a mistake she won’t repeat and it’s not just because of the embarrassment it caused her. In an attempt to relieve her business of the $75 fine levied by the Oxnard Police Department, she attended the Police Department’s False Alarm Awareness School--the only one of its kind in the county.

“I learned what it does to the Police Department--it’s such a waste,” said Delgado, who attended a recent class, the program’s fourth session since it started last year. “Believe me, next time I’ll turn the alarm off before I run in.”

Police agencies across Ventura County respond to thousands of similar false alarms every month and the cost can be $70 to $100 for each call in wasted staff time, officials said. Many agencies use fines as a way to recoup those costs and prevent future false alarms.

But the success of Oxnard’s aggressive public education effort in silencing false alarms--attendance at last week’s class was a record 51 people--has caught the eye of other municipalities from Ventura to Simi Valley, said Oxnard Cmdr. Tom Chronister, who runs the program. Los Angeles is the only other city in Southern California with a similar school, said Vince Nigro, president of the Southern California Security Assn.

In Oxnard, 18% of calls for service are related to security alarms and nearly 98% of those turn out to be false, Chronister said. The city spends roughly $400,000 each year responding to false alarms.

Establishing alarm awareness schools is a trend that started in Phoenix five years ago and is sweeping the country, said Jennifer Gehring, director of government relations for the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Assn. She said at least a handful of police departments in California have called recently for information on how to establish one.