Lone Star Security & Video Inc.
7545 Claire Ave
Reseda, CA 91335
818-341-0811
FONTANA PHONE: 909 350-1400
Fax: 818-343-3346
License #AC0 4028
 

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www.fontanaheraldnews.com

Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2007 8:50 AM PDT

Police will implement new policy on burglar alarms

By RUSSELL INGOLD

In a major policy shift, the Fontana Police Department has announced that it will be implementing a Verified Response policy to deal with the growing problem of false burglary alarms in Fontana.

Verified Response is a program that requires the alarm or monitoring company to verify that there is a legitimate need for a police response to a location prior to officers being requested, said Fontana Police Chief Larry Clark.

Starting Oct. 1, the Police Department will not routinely respond to a burglar alarm at a residence or business unless the alarm is verified by audio/video, private security, or eyewitnesses.

Verified Response will not apply to manually activated panic, duress, robbery alarms or medical alerts, and these will continue to be treated as high priority calls, Clark said.

Fontana will become the first city in San Bernardino County to implement the Verified Response system, which has been utilized in several cities scattered across the United States.

Clark said the Fontana P.D. grew increasingly concerned about the cost of false alarms in recent years. During Fiscal Year 2005-2006, the P.D. responded to 8,529 burglar alarms, and 99.72 percent of them were false (a percentage that is similar to the country-wide average).

"This cost taxpayers about $250,000 in wasted police manpower and resources," Clark said. "We felt that if we were going to bring this problem down to a manageable level, our only alternative was Verified Response."

However, representatives from the alarm industry strongly opposed the Fontana P.D.'s decision and said they were upset that the P.D. did not try to work with alarm companies before making this decision.

"It pains me to see the Police Department throwing in the towel and walking away from this situation," said Steve Sopkin, president of Mijac Alarm in Rancho Cucamonga, which services hundreds of homes in Fontana.

Dale Williams, president of Pacific Alarm in Beaumont, acknowledged that there are problems with false alarms, but said these difficulties can be addressed with measures such as Enhanced Call Verification that are not as extreme as Verified Response.

"My biggest concern is public safety," Williams said. "How safe will Verified Response be for the public?"

Fontana P.D. Captain Alan Hostetter, who has been working on developing the local Verified Response policy, indicated that it would be wrong to assume that the burglary rate will now rise in the city.

"Other agencies that have implemented this program have not seen any noticeable increase in the number of burglaries," Hostetter said.

Hostetter pointed to a report on burglar alarms by Cal State San Bernardino which was commissioned by several police departments in San Bernardino County.

"The research to date supports a verified police response to alarms as the most efficient method of responding to alarms," said the three authors of the report. "A verified police response substantially reduces the number of alarm calls to police departments without posing a significant level of danger to the public. Indeed, it can be argued that a Verified Response does not increase public danger or increase safety problems."

Cal State's report was blasted by David Margulies of the Margulies Communications Group, a firm based in Texas which represents an organization called the Security Industry Alarm Coalition.

"The university study that was used to justify Verified Response is terribly flawed and the school's dean has been asked to investigate," Margulies said.

"Police apparently never considered and were not aware of other successful programs that have reduced false alarms without ending police response."

Margulies said Verified Response is utilized by fewer than 30 police departments out of 18,000 in the U.S. "It is unpopular with citizens and always creates controversy once citizens become aware of the proposal," he said.

Since announcing the Verified Response policy earlier this month, Clark and Hostetter have been attending neighborhood meetings in Fontana to explain the program to residents. One of their main points is that officers having additional free time will be much more beneficial in reducing burglaries than responding to false alarms.

They said that with this additional free time, officers can spend more time making enforcement contacts with suspicious persons, patrolling areas with higher rates of burglaries, and focusing on gang members, drug abusers, parolees and probationers who are more likely to commit such crimes.

www.fontana.org

VERIFIED RESPONSE (VR)
 

Effective October 1, 2007, the Fontana Police Department will implement a Verified Response policy to all burglar alarms. The Police Department will not routinely respond to the alarm unless the alarm is verified by audio/video, private security, or eyewitnesses.  We discourage you from verifying your own alarm.  This is the responsibility of the alarm company.

Verified Response will not apply to manually activated panic, duress, robbery alarms or medical alerts and these will continue to be treated as high priority calls.