New Burglar Alarm Policy Cuts Calls, Officials Say, but False Alarms Persist

Politicians Tuesday lauded a 21% drop in burglar alarm calls to the Los Angeles Police Department this year and credited the change to a new policy that penalizes locations generating two false alarms annually.

The statistics were contained in a Police Commission report that also showed Los Angeles police officers had responded to 14,304 false alarms in January and February.

False alarms constituted 96% of dispatched alarm calls in the first two months of this year, a proportion virtually unchanged from 2003, when Chief William J. Bratton said his officers were wasting time and proposed responding to verified alarms only.

Instead, the Los Angeles Police Commission, with the advice of the City Council, decided to penalize those businesses and residences that produced multiple false alarms.

Also this week, responding to recent threats by commissioners on toughening the policy, the alarm industry’s largest organization turned over lists of customers seven months after first promising them.

A councilwoman, a deputy mayor and some commissioners said the report demonstrated progress. The customer lists -- there are an estimated 300,000 alarms in Los Angeles -- are considered a key to better enforcement of the policy against false alarms.

“I think the policy adopted by this commission reduced the number of false alarms,” Councilwoman Wendy Greuel told police commissioners at a meeting Tuesday. “Part of our goal has been achieved. But we have a long way to go.”

Greuel downplayed suggestions by critics in recent weeks, including from police Commissioner Rick Caruso, that the new policy was already falling short.

“There have been a few bumps in the road,” Greuel said, “but we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

The policy was approved as a compromise last year after the commission backed away from an initial decision that would have limited response to verified burglar alarms. Alarm industry advocates and some homeowners said that change would be too severe.

The policy that was accepted allows each alarm owner two false alarms annually.

Subsequently, verification of a break-in must be provided to elicit a police response.

The “significant” drop in calls reported shows that the alarm industry is taking more care to verify true emergencies, said Dan Koenig, the Police Commission’s executive director.

And Deputy Mayor Roberta Yang told police commissioners the figures showed that the policy supported by Mayor James K. Hahn was succeeding.

The number of alarm owners who applied for permits jumped from about 1,200 a month in 2002-2003 to 3,516 in February, she said.

For the first two months of this year, 2,250 addresses logged multiple false alarms, according to the report.

Under the new policy, a break-in must now be verified at those addresses before police are required to respond.

There were 80 cases in the two-month period in which police dispatchers recognized the source as having generated at least two false alarms, according to the report. No police units were dispatched, although the alarms were broadcast so that patrolling officers could respond voluntarily.

Hahn’s office proposed Tuesday that alarm companies and owners be required to provide specific unit or apartment numbers in large apartment complexes.

“This is not only a question of alarm policy, but of officer safety,” commission President David Cunningham said.