False alarms costly

Waynesboro police burn about 300 hours a year responding to hundreds of false alarms caused by misused and malfunctioning security systems, most repeatedly at city school buildings, according to a review of response records.

An ordinance proposed by police Chief Doug Davis would encourage alarm users to control their systems or face fines if they cause three or more false alarms in a year.

More than 70 businesses and four homes passed that threshold last year, records show. Five of Waynesboro’s school buildings caused 70 responses, including a city high 29 at Waynesboro High. Police responded to 798 false alarms in 2008 and 633 in 2009.

Levying fines on that many businesses could bring in tens of thousands of dollars to the city annually, but the idea is “to educate the alarm user, not to collect a fine,” Davis said.

“We’ve been looking at this for years,” he said.

Davis teamed up with an alarm industry group to craft the ordinance last year and presented it to the Waynesboro City Council last month. Public input will be accepted at a council meeting March 22.

The ordinance would require alarm users to obtain a permit and provide contact information to police. The city would move to a two-call system, in which police would not respond to after-hours alarms until alarm monitoring companies had made two calls to business representatives.

Fines could be waived by attending an alarm class. Fines have not been determined, but start at $25 to $75 for the first offense in some localities.

A report from Marietta, Ga., which had about four times the number of false alarms as Waynesboro, showed that launch of a false alarm fine decreased such calls by 1,000 in a year. Marietta collected more than $223,000 in its first year and $94,000 the second year.

News of the proposed ordinance has spurred some store managers to send word to corporate headquarters and others to review their systems. Some said they worry that police would count as false alarms incidents that are beyond their control.

“Sometimes it’s not me, it’s the mechanism,” said Waynesboro Heritage Museum Director Shirley Bridgeforth.

The museum had seven false alarms in 2008 and five last year.

“I give [employees] training,” Bridgeforth said. “I don’t know what else I could do about it.”

Waynesboro schools Superintendent Robin Crowder said he knows that school buildings cause too many false alarms. He also has a good idea as to why.

“The high school is different … because it’s a public building,” he said. “In a school that has close to 900 students and a hundred staff, what happens is we have kids and families and staff that come in and out of that building all the time.”

“We try to manage that with our custodial staff, but … it’s a hard place,” he said.

The high school triggered 61 false alarms in 2007, but fewer than 30 each of the past two years.

Davis is unsure if city-owned properties would be fined if the ordinance passes. It’s not out of the question, he said.

Crowder worries he’d have to put more limits on who can access school buildings.

“Folks are used to using that building,” he said. “It’s a bind for us. We want it to be a public building. But we also have to make sure we’re not abusing the police department.”

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department, housed in the Rosenwald Community Center, triggered 13 false alarms in 2007 and 14 in 2008, but just two last year.

Other businesses have shown similar drastic improvements, like Wendy’s off of Rosser Avenue, which had just a handful of false alarms in the past two years after tripping 32 in 2007.

In 2009, the Waynesboro County Club led all non-school locations with 21 false alarm calls, records show.

Davis has not suggested a fine schedule yet, but other localities begin with a fine of $25 to $75 and escalate each successive false alarm, sometimes rising to $500 for a tenth or subsequent false alarm.

Even charging on the lowest scale would have cost the Country Club thousands of dollars last year, if the ordinance had been in place.

Club General Manager Rodger Doyle said the club has already been proactive in changing procedures for alarm settings. He noted that motion detectors have been triggered by the movement of branches outside of windows. Alarms can also be triggered by storms.

Davis said such situations would not count against a business.

“This ordinance passes the reasonable test,” said Lynn Comer, president of Shenandoah Valley Security in Waynesboro and member of the executive committee of the Electronic Security Association of Virginia.

Comer said many communities don’t enforce alarm ordinances. Others use ordinances as “moneymakers.”

But she said Davis’ proposal is stronger than most because of his work with the Security Industry Alarm Coalition, which seeks to unite alarm companies, police and localities to reduce dispatches and manage alarms.

“The thrust of the ordinance is to change behavior,” said Glen Mowrey, national law enforcement liaison with the alarm coalition. “Most people have no idea the impact the alarm has on law enforcement.”

Nationwide, 98.6% of alarm calls are false alarms. Most are caused by user error, Mowrey said.

At the P. Buckley Moss Museum in Waynesboro — located as far as any business from the police department — director Corrado Gabellieri said he tries to train staff to use the alarm system without error.

The museum averages seven false alarms a year.

Gabellieri said the fine seems appropriate, but noted that few businesses are in the position to invest in a new system.

Crowder spoke similarly. He said security cameras would be a costly alternative. A swipe-card system, too.

“All of that stuff is an expense,” he said.

The Waynesboro Fire Department is working on a similar false alarm ordinance with Mowrey and the alarm coalition.