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After over one thousand false alarms in a single month, City Police are getting ready to hand out fines. A plan is in place to make you pay if police are forced to come to your home too often.
The City Council approved an alarm ordinance Wednesday night.
Generally upon entering the house you have 30 seconds from the time the entry door is opened until you get to the alarm panel.
And it's often when folks fail to disarm their system in the allotted time that false alarms occur. Security specialist Kenneth Joyner says operator error is just one trigger for false alarms.
Either poor installation practice or systems that are placed that have distractions inside the building. An example would be having a motion detector where there's a ceiling fan,” Joyner said.
Charleston police respond to roughly 1,200 false alarms each month.
Mt. Pleasant police had the same problem and say false alarms waste a police officers precious time.
Each alarm requires by policy that we send two officers and an average time of 20 minutes per alarm,” according to Sgt. Steve Meadows, the Mt. Pleasant Mt. Pleasant instituted an alarm ordinance six years ago and the number of false alarms went down.
Under Charleston's new ordinance, a fine of $50 will be levied for each false alarm after six. That fine goes up to a $100 for each one after that.
So your best bet is to
Many security systems are wired underneath the home. One way to prevent false alarms is to make sure that the access vents are securely covered.
To keep rodents from chewing on the wires that can set off the system.
Joyner says faulty switches and bad alarm panels can also trigger your system. He says you should test it periodically. Repeated false alarms indicate a malfunction that prevents your property from being secure.
The city's alarm ordinance takes effect on September 1.
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