False Alarms

Baltimore County police had expected the next County Council meeting to bring the prospect of relief from thousands of false burglar alarms -- but it turned out to be just one more false alarm.Chairman Joseph Bartenfelder withdrew the police-written false-alarm bill Tuesday after a barrage of questions from other members, delaying action for at least a month."Let them get it right, and then bring it back," Kevin Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Randallstown Democrat, said Tuesday during the meeting at which Bartenfelder pulled the bill.

It's getting expensive to thumb your nose at the law in Baltimore County. The county's annual collection of fines and penalties is expected to nearly triple, from $3.53 million in the last fiscal year to $9.24 million. And two new programs that often hit unsuspecting residents account for almost all the increase. Cameras the county began installing at busy intersections in December to monitor red-light runners are expected to yield $4.8 million for the budget year that ends in June. With the expansion of a false-alarm law to include residences as well as businesses, revenues from penalties are projected to rise from $800,100 to $1.81 million.

What are people to make of studies suggesting that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide in adolescents, that breast enhancement surgery may also make some women more prone to kill themselves, or that antibiotics may increase the chance of breast cancer? Well, scientists themselves don't know what to make of them. After all, these kinds of studies are intended to look for red flags when they find associations between drugs and other medical interventions and adverse side effects.

Carroll County firefighters may spend less time next year answering false fire alarms.The county commissioners have declared themselves receptive to following Westminster city government's lead by establishing penalties for businesses that fail to fix faulty alarms.During the past week, the commissioners said that if county firefighters endorse it, they will consider legislation aimed at automatic alarm systems that repeatedly sound when there's no fire.The commissioners also have promised to give some attention to their own back yard.

Howard County police will soon have a new tool to fight one of their biggest nuisances: false alarms. Following an example set by many municipalities across the nation, Howard County adopted an ordinance last year aimed at reducing alarm calls by issuing citations and fining offenders $50 or more if police receive more than two false alarms from the same source in a year. Howard police have kept track of false burglary alarms on their own for about a year, but they recently spent nearly $60,000 on a computer program that will help them track the more than 20,000 alarm calls they receive each year - almost all of which are false.

The county is working with volunteer fire companies to streamline fire-reporting procedures in an attempt to reduce the growing number of false alarms, which officials say endanger the safety of firefighters and residents. Of the 1,025 dispatches of firetrucks last year, 53 were the result of fire or smoke, according to Ernie Crist, manager of the county's Emergency Operation Center. He said 577 of the firetruck runs were the result of false alarms from faulty equipment, or the accidental or intentional triggering of an alarm.

Baltimore County police will begin enforcing next month a new law requiring homeowners to register their alarm systems and to pay fines for repeated false alarms, authorities said yesterday. Starting July 1, homeowners whose systems produce repeated false alarms face the possibility of fines that rise from $50 to $1,000, county police said. Businesses have been covered by the law since December, leading to a decrease in false alarms and an increase in false-alarm calls that were canceled before police arrived.

Anne Arundel County police are offering online registration for security alarms starting this week as part of an attempt to crack down on false alarms. Registration is required under a new law, which fines owners of properties that have repeated false alarms, said police spokesman Justin Mulcahy. When the law took effect in August, county officials said enforcement wouldn't begin until January because they did not have a contract with a company to run the program. In December, the Waldorf-based Public Safety Corp.

During one eight-day period last year, firefighters in Towson answered 96 false alarms -- all because of one nursing home's faulty alarm system.The experience is one reason why the Baltimore County Fire Department is asking the County Council to approve the use of a new state law that enables local governments to issue the equivalent of traffic tickets -- carrying fines -- for repeated false alarms and uncorrected fire code violations.The enabling state law took effect Oct. 1, and the County Council is to vote on the change in local law tomorrow night.