Homeowners and commercial businesses that use alarm systems as protection against crime could lose their one "freebie" if an amendment to the false alarm bylaw passes later this year.
Aaron Giesbrecht, manager of policing services for St. Albert, updated council Monday on the progress of the review of the bylaw. He explained that what has become apparent is that false alarms, whether residential or commercial, cost the city a lot of money while recovering very little of that through invoices and permit fees.
"Between dispatch time, officer time and dealing with permits and invoices, revenue only covers about 25 per cent of these expenses," Giesbrecht explained to council.
In total, false alarms cost the city $98,400 while permit fees and alarm response fines only brought in $22,830, Giesbrecht said.
In the review, Giesbrecht and other policing staff are looking at how they can minimize the number of false alarms, instead of simply hiking permit fees, which are already the highest in similarly-sized municipalities.
St. Albert recorded 1,200 false alarms in 2011, but the number of false alarms has remained relatively constant despite growth in population.
In the last five years, the RCMP recorded a low of 1,151 false alarm calls in 2006 and a high of 1,221 in 2009. Per 100 residents, St. Albert averages approximately 1.9 calls, among the lowest of its comparators. Approximately 60 per cent of those calls are for residential alarms, compared to 40 per cent for commercial.
"There has been no significant reduction over the last five years," Giesbrecht said. "We're increasing in population with more buildings, yet more false alarm calls aren't popping up."
Changes
Giesbrecht proposed three changes to council for its review, one of which would completely remove the one free false alarm call all permit holders get each year – it is free in the sense they are not invoiced the cost of responding to the alarm.
"Approximately 50 per cent of responses are not billable and that's because the bylaw allows one free call a year," Giesbrecht said.
Instead of simply eliminating the free call per year, Coun. Cathy Heron proposed an amended motion that will give permit holders one free false call during the existence of their permit.
"I would still prefer to see a new homeowner with a new system being allowed to make a mistake," Heron said.
Another impediment to recovering costs is when the police are notified the call is false, Giesbrecht said. Under the current bylaw, false alarms are only billed to permit holders if an officer arrives at the scene. Council instead approved a recommendation that permit holders will be invoiced when police are dispatched.
"There needs to be recognition of the time the RCMP are spending on these false alarms. They should be able to invoice to compensate," Mayor Nolan Crouse said.
Giesbrecht said he had read a recent report that stated between 95 and 98 per cent of alarm calls are false alarms. So council also passed a recommendation that alarm companies and alarm permit holders will be required to verify "one-zone alarms," typically caused when a single sensor goes off but no others do. Police would still respond for multi-zone alarms, panic, duress, glass break, hold up, domestic violence and any alarm at a school or bank during business hours.
Staff will now take those recommendations and work them into the bylaw, which will return to council for formal approval later this year.
