LCS Unit Order 34

LANCASTER STATION

UNIT ORDER #34

FALSE ALARM PROGRAM

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this order is to delineate Lancaster Station's enforcement of the City of Lancaster's burglary and robbery alarm ordinance, Title 5 business licenses and regulations, Chapter 5.38 Burglar Alarms.

ORDER:

Lancaster city special assignment liaison deputy will be responsible for the false alarm program, with the assistance of a civilian volunteer.  The program shall track the incidence of false alarms, identify chronic alarm ordinance violators, and submit reports of repeat violators to the city of Lancaster.  The objectives are to reduce the number of false alarms, educate the alarm subscriber and, where appropriate, access financial penalties on repeat offenders.

When patrol units respond to an alarm call in the city of Lancaster and determine that no evidence of a crime occurred, the handling unit shall issue a city of Lancaster false alarm warning notice, AKA FAWN, to the business/residence.

The triplicate notices are located in the briefing room. The hard copy is left at the business/residence. The white and yellow copies are to be turned into the watch sergeant at end of shift. 

DATA COLLECTION AND VIOLATOR NOTIFICATION

All information pertaining to false burglary (700), robbery (701), and intrusion (701) alarms will be recorded from the returned “False Alarm Warning Notice” and station logs.  A database will be used to record the alarm information.  The alarm information will consist of the resident’s address, the alarm owner's name and phone number, the date of the alarm, the arrival time, departure time, reporting officer, the type of alarm, and tag number of the call.

Any resident or business that receives a false alarm warning notice is required to submit in writing, to the station false alarm coordinator, within 10 days of receiving the notice, corrective action that they have taken, or intend to take, to alleviate any future false alarms.

PROSECUTION

An alarm system which generates three (3) or more false alarms in any twelve (12) month period is in violation of city of Lancaster ordinance section 5.38.  After the 3^rd false alarm is generated, a report of the location’s alarm history, along with the white copies of the false alarm warning notices will be submitted to the city of Lancaster finance department for invoice and collection of service charges.

REPORTING

All of the above functions shall be recorded in the database.  Additionally, a file shall be maintained of all correspondence sent and received.

A report shall be prepared at the conclusion of each month by the false alarm coordinator indicating the number of false alarm responses. The report will break down the numbers of 1^st time offenders, 2^nd time offenders, and those that have generated 3 or more false alarms, and how many violation notices were submitted to the city. 

All reports and correspondence shall be retained for a period of one (1) year from the date of the first violation as described.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Desk/Complaint Personnel: Obtain pertinent information from alarm company and type in call:

• Complete address (unit#, suite#, space#)
• Resident/Business name
• Resident/Business telephone number
• Coverage (interior motion, perimeter, etc.)
• Determine if a responsible party is responding

Handling Unit:

• Respond to location and determine if crime occurred
• If no evidence of crime, then a false alarm warning notice (FAWN) shall be issued
• If anyone is contacted (resident, cleaning crew, etc.) at the location, that information shall be included on the FAWN
• Leave top (hard copy) at the location where it can be easily found i.e. stick to front door
• Enter the FAWN number in the clearance narrative of the call
• Turn in completed notices (white & yellow copies) to the Watch Sergeant

Watch Sergeant (all shifts):

• Collect and review the false alarm warning notices
• Initial the bottom right corner, next to notice number
• Give the reviewed notices to the watch deputy

Watch Deputy (Day/PM shift):

• Collect notices
• Place in designated location for early morning watch deputy

Watch Deputy (EM shift):

• After midnight, he/she will run an incident search of all 700 & 701 clearances and print them out
• Check off the calls that have corresponding false alarm warning notices (FAWN)
• Highlight the calls that do not have a false alarm warning notice
• Give completed list to the EM watch sergeant for review
• Place completed FAWN’s in box in watch sergeant’s office

Watch Sergeant (EM shift):

• Review print out received from watch deputy
• Check the incident details of the highlighted alarm calls without a FAWN
• Determine if unit responded and if a FAWN was issued
• Complete pre-printed half-sheet memo regarding the missing notice addressed to the handling unit
• Request a response from the handling unit with a reason a FAWN was not issued

False Alarm Coordinator:

• Liaison between the Department and the City of Lancaster
• Collect the completed FAWN’s from the watch sergeant’s office
• Assure the FAWN information is input in to the false alarm database
• Monitor the database for accuracy
• Print report of residences/businesses that exceed the allowed number of false alarms and give to the city of Lancaster finance department
• Visit problematic locations, as needed, to assess any ongoing alarm problems.

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

From time to time, conditions exist that generate false alarm calls that are not a fault of the alarm owner or the alarm company.  Severe weather, power outages, construction, etc.  In these cases a false alarm warning notice is still required, however, false alarm responses will not be charged against the alarm owner.  When false alarms are generated by an unusual or special circumstances, the decision to charge or not to charge false alarm responses to specific locations will be at the discretion of the false alarm coordinator.