3 Errant Calls to Police May Be Allowed

Hoping for a compromise on the city’s controversial new residential burglar alarm policy, the City Council recommended Tuesday that homeowners be allowed three false alarms before police stop automatically responding.

The Los Angeles Police Commission has the next word on the plan, and Commission President Rick Caruso said Tuesday that the panel would consider it.

Earlier this year, the commission voted to stop dispatching officers to unverified alarms. Police Chief William J. Bratton has maintained that the change -- not yet implemented -- is necessary because 92% of burglar alarms were false.

Many on the council strenuously objected, calling it an open invitation to thieves. But opponents did not muster enough votes for a veto.

Instead, the council formed a task force and produced the compromise plan that the full council unanimously forwarded to the Police Commission on Tuesday.

“None of us believes that false alarms are acceptable,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who spearheaded opposition to the policy change. “But the answer of a blanket non-response was also not the answer.”

Under the compromise plan, residents and businesses would be slapped with higher fines each time police are dispatched based on a false or mistakenly tripped alarm.

Within the first seven days after an alarm has been installed -- the period when most false alarms occur -- alarm companies would be encouraged not to call police unless they had verified a break-in.

The compromise plan also calls for a total revamping of the burglar alarm permit process, a public education campaign about the issue, and a host of other changes designed to limit the number of false alarms.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, who was also frustrated with the issue of false alarms when he was police chief, called the compromise “absolutely the most well-thought-out and in-depth analysis of the problem that I’ve seen in 30 years.”

For decades, police have complained about manpower wasted in rushing to tens of thousands of false alarms each year and have sought to change the policy several times. Residents worried about crime, backed by the well-funded alarm company lobby, have always managed to thwart them.