Belleville City Council has adopted a Verified Alarm Response Program By-law, aiming to cut down the number of false alarms police respond to.
The by-law, which was given final reading at Monday’s meeting of council, was developed by city staff at the request of the Belleville Police Services Board.
At a previous meeting, Councillor Tyler Allsopp, also the Chair of the Police Services Board, stated that approximately three per cent of calls come from businesses, but that 81 per cent of those calls are false alarms.
This by-law will require alarm companies to verify the alarm is legitimate before notifying police.
If Belleville police do attend what turns out to be a false alarm, there will be consequences – the first attendance will result in a caution letter with subsequent responses during a calendar year resulting in a fee for service from $50 to $200 directed to the monitoring and/or alarm agency.
FALSE ALARM
Police attendance to a false alarm in a calendar year:
First Response – Caution Letter
Second Response – $50
Third Response – $100
Fourth and all Subsequent Responses – $200
