Redmond looks to crack down on false alarms

Responding to false alarms is taking time and resources away from the Redmond Police Department.

Every year, Redmond police respond to more than 23,000 calls. The volume is a strain on the department, which is looking for ways to reduce the number without increasing risks to residents. One idea is cracking down on false alarms.

The department gets 600 to 700 burglar alarm calls annually, and according to Lt. Curtis Chambers, nearly all of them turn out to be false.

“They take about 20 minutes of an officer’s time, and it’s a two-officer response to a call such as that. When you add it all up, that’s over 400 hours a year that officers spend looking into alarms at businesses or residences,” Chambers said Monday.

On Tuesday, the City Council will consider adjusting the fees associated with false alarms. Residents and businesses could start paying higher fines.

If police respond to a false alarm, the owner would only get one warning. Currently, they get two. The second false alarm call would come with a $100 fine, and at three or more false alarm calls, the fine would be $250 each.

City Manager Keith Witcosky said, “If you had a system in your house that wasn’t working properly, and the police came every time to solve it, that’s very expensive to everybody else who maybe has a more legitimate police situation going on.

“So we want to encourage people to train their staff. We want to encourage people to get their system working properly,” Witcosky said.

If the City Council approves the fee changes, they will go into effect July 1.

You can read more about the proposal at this link:

Http://redmond-or.Granicus.Com/metaviewer.Php?View_id=1&event_id=258&meta_id=27141

Do you think people and businesses should be fined after false alarms? That’s our new KTVZ.COM Poll, halfway down the right side of our home page.