May 12, 2008
Alarming news: False burglar alarms could cost you
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Be alarmed about your false alarms.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a recommendation to the Representative Town Meeting on Monday that the legislative body adopt a revised alarm system ordinance that would include both false fire and burglar alarms.
The false police alarm side of the ordinance would carry with it a $100 fine for first-time offenders and $150 fine for second-time offenders. A $200 fine would be levied for the third and all subsequent false alarms.
Previously the ordinance applied only to false fire alarms, which carries with it a fixed $100 fine for each false alarm.
“We have had a fire alarm ordinance,” First Selectman Evonne Klein said. “We don’t have a burglar alarm ordinance right now. This would be merging the two.”
The original amendment called for a flat $100 fine, akin to a fire false alarm, but the selectmen wanted a more stringent penalty.
“I just think we need to send that message,” Selectman Callie Sullivan said, “that as
Paul Johnson, who serves on the Darien Police Commission, said that it was up to the selectmen, but they settled on $100 because it was a number that they felt was both reasonable and still high enough to make an impact.
“It’s a good starting point,” said Peter Truebner, who also serves on the commission.
“If after a year or so, we need to raise it then we can.”
“There are a number of people in this town — the senior citizens as well as some of the young people — where $250 would be a major problem. So we tried to keep it simple,” Johnson said. “We want to encourage people to use their alarms. We don’t want to deter them from using them.”
Selectman David Bayne asked why fire false alarms are triggered when the firefighters are dispatched, but police false alarms are triggered when the officers arrive at the scene.
“It’s because police are already out on the road,” said Bob Harrell, who also serves on the Police Commission. “They’re not called out from their place of business or from their dinner table.”
Selectman Linda Santarella asked who would be the “alarm administrator for the police. Would it be a new hire?”
Town counsel Ed Schmidt told the selectmen that often it is contracted out. Harrell added that the revenue from the fine would be used to pay for the outsourcing, which brought the conversation to how the revenue would be handled.
“I am concerned at the tone of the conversation because we are talking about money and that’s not the point of the ordinance,” said Joe Warren, a member of the Noroton Fire Department. “This ordinance was never supposed to be a revenue stream, it was supposed to be a way to stop the false alarms.”
“We appreciate the money,” he added of the town fire departments, “but let’s not lose sight of what we’re trying to accomplish here.”
Lloyd Plehaty, chairman of the Town, Government Structure & Administration Committee of the RTM, said his committee didn’t discuss how the revenue money would be handled.
“We deliberately avoided going into detail because that’s up to the executive board,” he said. “Also, that will change [over time] and it shouldn’t require the cumbersome process of amending an ordinance.”
Johnson said there were almost 2,000 false burglar alarms a year. “So this will bring in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year,” Johnson said.
While Santarella voted for recommending the ordinance to the RTM, she said she wished there was more time to discuss the matter in public.
“It’s about having more open lines of communication with the public, so that the public has more information on what we’re doing,” she told The Darien Times on Tuesday. “I was very disappointed that we didn’t have a better presentation. I am very familiar with the fire alarm ordinance, I just wanted to get it out into the public, so that the public can talk about it and know what we’re doing.”
E-mail Darien Times reporter Austin Amoroso at aamoroso@darientimes.com.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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