False Alarms

Business owners and homeowners would pay higher fines when county fire and police respond to false alarms, under measures to be introduced this week in the Harford County Council. Councilman Dion F. Guthrie, an Edgewood Democrat, said he plans to introduce two bills Tuesday that would increase fees for false alarms resulting in a response by county sheriff's deputies and firefighters. "The sheriffs and the Fire Department have been nagged with many false alarms, and a lot of it is because people neglect their equipment, or the alarm goes off and they don't bother to call," Guthrie said.

Anne Arundel police responded to 22,604 alarms last year, but just 1 percent, or 226, involved a crime. The rest were an almost criminal waste of time, county officials say. The Leopold administration hopes to change that ratio - and stop sapping the Police Department's resources - with a draft bill expected to be introduced to the County Council on Tuesday that could impose penalties on residents and business owners responsible for repeated false alarms....

A new Baltimore County law that fines businesses with more than two false-alarm calls is working -- the number of false alarms dropped more than 6 percent in February and March, police said.By the end of last month, police had issued 2,351 citations for false-alarm calls. Equally significant was the number of false-alarm calls that were canceled before the officer arrived -- it doubled for the first three months of this year, according to police."Before, if your alarm went off, it was no big deal," said county Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan.

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker has established a 14-member task force to try to stem the rising tide of false alarms in the county -- an average of 55 calls a day for police officers to investigate.In the first six months of this year, there were 9,775 false alarms that cost $560,889 in police time, Howard police officials said. This year, the department expects to spend about 4.6 percent of its $24.3 million budget responding to false alarms.The total for the first half of 1996 is on a pace expected to surpass last year's 18,358 calls.

HOWARD COUNTY wasted $1 million of taxpayer money responding to false burglar alarms last year. Other local jurisdictions wasted millions more. Pets, windstorms and homeowners and hired help who don't know how security systems work are tripping alarms at alarming rates.In 1996, Howard County police responded to 19,883 bogus calls, about 55 a day. The problem is not local. Police departments across the country are faced with significant losses of money and manpower caused by home and business alarm systems.

The City Council approved last night a bill that will impose fines of up to $1,000 against residents or companies whose electronic burglar alarm systems repeatedly trigger false alarms. Police respond to more than 100,000 false alarms each year, wasting vital law enforcement time, said City Council President Sheila Dixon. "Hopefully, this legislation will allow us ... to not have police running from alarm to alarm," Dixon said. Penalties begin after two false alarms during a 12-month period.

A bill that would have raised fines considerably for false fire alarms in Harford County was vetoed Tuesday by County Executive David R. Craig, in a move that overturned a 6-1 County Council vote. Craig wrote in a message accompanying his veto that there is no data to demonstrate that increases in fines and penalties would act as a deterrent. Councilman Dion F. Guthrie, who introduced the bill, disagreed. "I read his veto message, but I don't see any substance at all," Guthrie said. "To say that it is not a deterrent is ridiculous.

A task force is searching for ways to fine-tune Baltimore County's false-alarm ordinance, a law that police say is working, but that some business owners say unfairly penalizes them. The task force, composed of 11 business owners and county councilmen Joseph Bartenfelder, Vincent J. Gardina and John A. Olszewski Sr., will offer proposals that would allow businesses to avoid fines by alerting police to false alarms. "I don't think they are looking to do away with the system. ... We are looking for consistency," said Olszewski.

The increasing number of false alarms from commercial and home security systems has cost Howard County more than $1 million, and officials want to make users pay. In legislation proposed by County Executive James N. Robey, residents with security systems would have to pay as much as $1,000 in fines for false alarms, as well as a one-time $35 fee to register their systems with the county Police Department. "Our ultimate goal is to hold alarm users responsible and accountable for the operation of their system," police Chief Wayne Livesay said.

ROCKVILLE -- Owners of burglar alarms in Montgomery County will get more scrutiny and less sympathy next year if they accidentally trigger a call.The County Council passed legislation yesterday that will fine alarm owners after two false alarms in a year and require a home or business system to be upgraded after six false alarms. The amount of fines has not been set.However, the legislation pales by comparison to the zero-tolerance policy proposed in May by Councilwoman Gail H. Ewing, who sponsored the legislation initially.