False Alarms

The Baltimore City Council's Taxation Committee killed a bill yesterday aimed at reducing the fee charged to residents with burglar alarms, but supported separate legislation to transfer that cost to security firms. The committee rejected Councilwoman Helen L. Holton's bill to eliminate an annual $20 fee that residents must pay to register burglar alarms. She wanted to replace it with a one-time fee, which she said would have less impact on elderly residents living on fixed incomes. The city's Board of Estimates, which is controlled by Mayor Martin O'Malley, recommended the rejection of Holton's bill Wednesday, saying it would jeopardize the contract with the company hired to reduce false alarms.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates told the City Council yesterday to reject a pending bill aimed at reducing a $20 annual fee charged for residential burglar alarms. The council's taxation committee is scheduled to decide today whether to heed the board's advice by voting to kill the bill, or to send it to the full council for consideration. "I'm hoping that we move it along," said Councilwoman Helen L. Holton, who introduced the proposal. "If the full council passes it, it's then up to the mayor, who'll either take the recommendation of the council or veto it."

City school officials and police are continuing to crack down on a rash of student-set fires and false fire alarms that have repeatedly disrupted classes in at least three schools. As of yesterday, five students had been arrested in connection with the fires, school officials said. Four students were arrested at Walbrook High Uniform Services Academy, where 19 fires have been set since city schools opened Sept. 7. A 14-year-old boy was arrested after a fire yesterday morning in a health suite at Thurgood Marshall High, causing smoke and water damage.

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.

Lucy L. Glenn has protected her East Baltimore townhouse with a burglar alarm for nearly 20 years. But new city-imposed fees for such systems have her feeling robbed nonetheless. "I have to buy my medicine, I pay my taxes and I pay my mortgage," said Glenn, 72, of North Aisquith Avenue. "I pay $37 a month for the [burglar alarm] monitoring and now I have to pay a $20 registration fee?" The law, which took effect late last year and drew protests from alarm customers, says she has to pay. But City Councilwoman Lisa Joi Stancil introduced a bill last night that proposes to pass along that fee to burglar alarm companies that monitor security systems.

Responding to angry e-mails, letters and phone calls, the City Council is rethinking a program that charges residents a $20 annual burglar alarm fee. Councilwoman Helen L. Holton introduced a bill last night that would make the fee a one-time charge instead of annual. Under the plan, businesses would continue to pay the yearly fee -- and anyone would face fines for repeated false alarms. The bill was referred to the taxation committee for study. "The outcry has been so strong from the citizens of Baltimore," Holton said.

A BELATED brouhaha about Baltimore City's penalties on false alarms is much ado about nothing. Cities and counties across the country have adopted similar fines because cash penalties are the best way to reduce chronic false alarms, which are costly and which unnecessarily divert police and firefighters from real emergencies. In April 2002, when Baltimore's false-alarm ordinance was approved, it was so uncontroversial that only one City Council member voted against it. But now that police are finally getting around to sending residents bills for the annual $20 registration fee, throngs of homeowners are upset.

When burglar alarms trigger calls to emergency dispatchers, Baltimore police officers respond with lights blazing and sirens blaring. The Police Department treats every burglary alarm as if it were real. More often than not, however, police discover nothing but a false alarm, a problem plaguing cities throughout the nation. Last year, the City Council enacted a law that requires registration fees for security systems and imposes fines for alarms that consistently cry wolf. The intent was to reduce the false calls while offsetting the cost of responding to them.

Racing returned yesterday to Laurel Park for its six-month fall-winter stand featuring the Maryland Million on Saturday. Things went well for one race. Then, with fire alarms throughout the track flashing and emitting high-pitched alerts, the track was evacuated and fire trucks arrived with their lights flashing. It turned out there was no fire. An alarm in the Carriage Room, a banquet hall, had somehow been mistakenly triggered. Patrons were allowed back in. Racing resumed. The second race started 12 minutes late, the third seven minutes late.

Recent blooms of potentially toxic algae in the region's waterways have state officials warning people away from the greenish scum, which can get as thick as pea soup and sicken humans and animals. Concerns sent state officials yesterday rushing to test the Chesapeake Bay's waters off Sandy Point State Park near Annapolis - a false alarm, it turned out, after the results came back negative for blue-green algae, said Peter J. Tango, a program manager tracking the algae blooms. The tests, prompted by reports of blue-green algae in the bay from the park south to the Thomas Point Lighthouse, were the state's latest response to complaints about Microcystis algae.