False Alarm Ordinance Changes Target Companies

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- A chorus of complaints didn't deter Sandy Springs leaders from revamping its false alarm ordinance that shifts the responsibility of registration from the homeowners and businesses to alarm companies providing monitoring services.

The City Council at its July 18 meeting unanimously approved the change, meaning that going forward, these companies will be assessed a fine for calls they make to 911 which are determined to be false alarms, the city said.

“There has been a lot of talk about fines, but the real issue is that the system today doesn’t work,” Mayor Rusty Paul said in a statement. “In any other industry, a 97 percent failure rate would constitute change without question. False alarms are an undue burden on our public safety personnel and on our taxpayers, and we need to reverse that statistic.”

The approval followed speeches and debate between members of the alarm company industry and City Council members. One person, Diane Freeland of Georgia Security Systems, accused the city of not enforcing its original ordinance, and that the push to fine the owner would not reduce the percentage of false alarm calls in the city.

The original ordinance was implemented in 2012, and included recommendations of the alarm industry such as mandatory registration of all monitored systems and a graduated fine system for false alarms, with any assessed fines paid by the alarm company customer.

However, in 2016, Sandy Springs received nearly 12,000 false alarm calls, with an estimated 19 percent of those from unregistered users. It estimates it spent more than $775,000 in personnel costs alone in 2016 on false alarm response.

Brad Glore of United Monitoring Services said he has about 80 alarm company dealers under his belt. About three of those have more than 1,000 accounts and the rest have less than 100.

“They can’t afford to pay these fines," he said. Glore also stipulated that if the city can't collect fines from end users, then it shouldn't expect a different outcome by imposing the fines on companies. The key is execution and the current ordinance, Glore said, "is not being executed."

Mayor Paul said Sandy Springs has never said it has a problem with collecting fines from users. The city has been collecting those fines, but it hasn't reduced the issue of false alarms.

“To sit here and tell us that we aren't enforcing our own ordinance doesn’t really help you cause because we do enforce our ordinance," he added.

Dan Gordon, who represents Gelssa, said he thought the city should focus on working with companies to craft an ordinance that would be agreeable to all parties.

An additional speaker, Justin Owen of Owen Security, said the city is not considering the unintended consequences of passing such an ordinance. He argued that alarm companies will refuse to do business in the city of Sandy Springs, and the rising cost to provide these services will be passed on to business owners and residents.

That didn't sit well with Paul, who said residents are already being shouldered with the costs.

“The cost to our taxpayers will go down because right now they are subsidizing your business at three quarters of a million dollars a year,” he added, noting if the false alarm calls were at 50 percent, there would not be a discussion in the city.

The state of Georgia currently mandates two-call verification. The ordinance change also establishes additional verification requirements for video monitored burglar alarms and adds provisions prohibiting single action, non-recessed buttons for panic and hold-up alarms.

Councilman Andy Bauman told company representatives in the audience that they needed to look at the issue from the perspective of the citizens, the folks Sandy Springs leaders are tasked with serving.

“These false alarm rates are absolutely stunning, and I think you do have a role and I think you do have the ability to do something about it,” he said.

The changes to the ordinance will go into effect on Sept. 1, with a 30-day grace period on fines. Those assessments will kick in on Oct. 1.

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