City council tabled an amendment to the existing security alarm systems bylaw, Jan. 16.
The main goal of the bylaw is to reduce the number of false alarm repeat offenders.
The City was asked to strengthen the wording of the bylaw. Under the revised bylaw, owners would be fined when police are “dispatched” to a second or subsequent false alarm. The current wording states owners are fined when officers “respond.”
According to Darryl Poburan, manager of municipal enforcement, RCMP and building inspections, the bylaw is effective. For the period of Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, false alarms have decreased by 47 per cent from 2010 to 2011.
“There are a lot of alarms out there that are troublesome and don’t work like they should,” he said. “Officers are called off of what they are doing. We need to make sure people are maintaining their alarms so we are not wasting time and money.”
Poburan says precious resources are used when a false alarm call comes in even if officers are not dispatched.
“The time involved to process a false alarm where an officer does not attend takes a half hour plus by the dispatcher and often involves the dispatched officer utilizing the police motor vehicle en-route to cancelled alarm,” he said. “A lot of work goes into dealing with a false alarm. Officers are now spending a lot of time dealing with false alarms even if they are called off.”
He said without the bylaw, people are less willing to fix their broken or defective alarm systems. Officers also have the opportunity to wave the bylaw on their own discretion, he added.
From Jan. 1 to Dec. 19, 2011, there were 159 false alarms billed for non-residential property and 113 billed for residential property. Alderman Fred Burley and Mayor Peter Brown said they would like to see numbers on how many calls are dispatched and then cancelled.
“When does (the fine) kick in?” asked Brown. “Is it immediately? In 20 seconds? There is no way to quantify how many false alarms we have been called to but have been called off. ”
“I can see paying for it if the RCMP have to go out, but not just to be dispatched,” said Alderman Allan Hunter.
“I think it is leaning too heavy handed on the people and I am not comfortable with that. You say it is starting to get the needed result and that is a pretty significant decrease. I say if it is not working, we can look at it again.”
Hunter said the intention of the original bylaw was to avoid wasting valuable police officer time, if RCMP officers are dispatched and they arrive, the fine should be administered.
“But I can’t see the value of changing this right now. To me, it is inherently unfair to citizens,” he added.
Burley was also interested in knowing how Airdrie’s security alarm systems bylaw compares with other municipalities’. Poburan said he did not have that information.
Airdrie’s current fines are $75 for a residential false alarm and $125 for a non-residential property. Subsequent infractions within a 12-month period at the same alarm site will cost owners $150 for residential and $250 for non-residential properties.
Burley said the fines are too high if the police are just dispatched and don’t actually attend.
“We could look at having lower fines in that instance,” he said.
Council unanimously agreed to table the amendment to the bylaw until staff could obtain more information. No date has been set for when the new information will come before council.
