HOT AIR OVER LAPD POLICY IS ALARMING.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

The worst part about the burglar alarm response debate that just won't die is the the perpetuation of a myth uttered so often it has become gospel. That is the idea that officers waste 15 percent of their patrol time ``chasing the alarm fairy,'` as our colorful chief likes to put it, rather than fighting real crime.

This statement alone has driven a yearlong policy fight, sparked when the Police Commission proposed that the LAPD stop responding to service calls based on tripped burglar alarms at houses and low-risk businesses that hadn't been verified by a live person - in other words, most of them. The problem is, more than 90 percent of the some 120,000 annual alarm calls police respond to are false - or appear to be by the time cops show up.

Police officials would have us believe that cops drop everything to protect the vulnerable VCRs, heirloom jewelry and home computers of the city's ``elite'' alarm owners, leaving serial killers and rapists and car thieves free to wreak havoc on everyone else.

In fact, if they weren't rushing to and fro, like Keystone Kops set to the tune of a screaming klaxon, officers could spend 15 percent more of their time patrolling city parks, dark alleyways and other places that breed violent crime.

But that's not how it works, according to police officials themselves.

As the Police Commission's own analyst, Lt. Debra Kirk, told me, burglar alarm calls, which generally come from an alarm monitoring company on an non-911 phone line, are given low priority by dispatchers. Patrol car officers will pick up the call if they have nothing else going on, same as they would for a report of a loud party.

Often they do have more serious crime to pursue, and the burglar alarm call gets pushed farther down the list. That means officers might check out a ringing alarm in 10 minutes - or 10 hours. They have been known to show up the next day, or even not at all.

Besides, as Councilwoman Janice Hahn has pointed out, since when is getting officers out of the doughnut shops and into our neighborhoods to check out possible crime a waste of resources?

Quick background for those of you just joining the burglar alarm debate: In January, after months of consideration, the Police Commission ordered LAPD patrol officers to stop rolling on calls for service initiated by unverified residential and commercial burglar alarms in the city. Exempt from the order were, of course, banks, gun shops, City Hall and the homes of city officials who get free alarms and priority police response ... but that's another story.

Homeowners and neighborhood council members, riled up by alarm companies and a couple of council members, stopped the order with their protests. As a first line of defense for modest homes and business, they were upset that A) the police would issue such a blanket ban without enough public input and B) announce it to all the burglars out there, at least those who keep up with local news.

The City Council considered vetoing the new police policy, but instead set up a task force to look at alternatives. The Police Commission, task force, City Council and mayor tussled over compromises, finally settling on a plan allowing two false alarms before getting no police response. Problem solved, or so it seemed.

Last week, the City Council asked for a delay in the compromise policy, noting that it might not actually be doable. Now we're back to square one, and I just know that 15 percent figure isn't far behind.

This is not to say that the council shouldn't revise its burglar alarm policy. It absolutely should. The bulk of the false alarms come from a small percentage of alarm owners. It is a waste of time (though not, I would argue, a 15 percent waste) for officers to keep going back to the house where the cat is setting off the alarm.

It's just that this whole year of debate hasn't accomplished any savings in police time, just a lot of inflammatory rhetoric, a shakedown of the alarm industry and the freaking out of many people who worry police won't protect them.

Plus now the burglars know just how useless burglar alarms really are.