Missouri has opted to outsource thehandling of false alarms, joining several other cities that are now saving time and money by taking it out of the hands of local police and into those of companies that exclusively monitor and track false alarms, as well as bill those homeowners who have an excess of false alarms. By outsourcing this kind of monitoring and billing to larger companies, it will save the cities that do so a number of problems, such as a lack of manpower to deal with these false alarms, budget drains, and efficiency issues.
Leif Kothe, a contributor to the website, reports:
The Springfield Police Department has received roughly 2,100 false alarm calls thus far in 2013. The city’s ordinance levies a civil penalty fee, between $15 and $50, for those who have at least four false alarms. The charges escalate with each additional violation.” He also noted that “False alarms are both a fiscal and logistical drain on towns and cities. But some of the things that might mitigate false dispatches, including system upgrades and more regular maintenance, are not always at the forefront of many customers’ minds.”
These numbers suggest that while homeowners are eager to have these installed, they do not always consider what kind of maintenance they might require or what might happen if they do not opt to download upgrades to their systems.
Not only do these false alarms cause a drain on the resources of cities that have a high incident of them, but they can also pose a danger to other citizens. Whenpolice are responding to a break-in that turns out to be nothing more than a false alarm, it causes a delay for them to help other people who may have an actual emergency. In many cities, both manpower and budgets are severely limited, and a false alarm may cause a delay in police response to another life-or-death situation.
The good news is that when cities do outsource their false alarm tracking, these large companies can not only instantly identify what caused the false alarm, but they will also educate the consumer on how to upgrade and maintain their via regular maintenance so the problem won’t happen again. Missouri officials hope that round-the-clock false alarm monitoring, when combined with consumer education, will drastically reduce the number of false alarms in the city.
Gary Nash
Author – Gary has been with us for 3 years, but already has expert knowledge of the home security industry. He’s in charge of company research and news. Zach works to ensure that the site provides the most accurate and timely news in the industry.