REACTION TO ALARMS IS MIXED SOME FEAR NONRESPONSE BY POLICE WILL INVITE CRIME.Byline: Angie Valencia-Martinez Staff Writer SIMI VALLEY Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. - Some residents fear a police proposal to require verification of break-ins before deploying police officers on security alarm calls would be equivalent to posting a welcome sign to criminals. Police Chief Mark Layhew explained the proposed policy at a community meeting attended by about 20 people, winning some support. Police say the vast majority of security alarm calls are false alarms that waste thousands of hours of officer time. Still, a few residents worry that not responding to every alarm call would invite crime to one of the nation's safest cities. ``I worry this says, 'Welcome, criminals, to Simi Valley,''' said Kate O'Brien
According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the proposed policy - modeled after a year-old ordinance in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. - police would respond only to alarm calls when criminal activity is verified, such as by a live camera feed, a private security guard, eyewitness An individual who was present during an event and is called by a party in a lawsuit to testify as to what he or she observed. The state and Federal Rules of Evidence, which govern the admissibility of evidence in civil actions and criminal proceedings, impose requirements , motion detectors A motion detector is a device that contains a physical mechanism or electronic sensor that quantifies motion that can be either integrated with or connected to other devices that alert the user of the presence of a moving object within the field of view. or audio sensors, Layhew said. In 2003-04, police responded to 3,805 alarm calls, of which 3,727 were false alarms. That cost the city $186,000 in lost officer time - more than 7,400 hours - enough to hire three full-time police officers. The purpose of Wednesday night's meeting was to receive community input, which will be presented to the City Council on May 2 for consideration. ``This is a draft ... a working document,'' Layhew said. ``We want to shift the responsibility back to the alarm companies.'' Police would still respond to robbery, panic and medical alarms. The current alarm ordinance was adopted in 1989. It allows for five false alarms a year before the department sends a disconnect disconnect - SCSI reconnect notice as a warning. Alarm subscribers then pay a $40 reconnect fee, which allows an additional five false alarm calls. Ninety-eight percent of alarm calls are false. The verified alarm approach has proven successful in reducing the number of false alarms, Layhew insisted. ``We have no intent to put anyone's safety in jeopardy.'' ``We're close to having a good ordinance ... It needs tweaking tweaking Vox populi Fine-tuning to produce optimal results ,'' said Sandra Webb. ``We do have to cut down on the number of false alarms. That's response times, not just money out of our pockets. It's a safety issue.'' Some in attendance suggested raising the penalties as an alternative to the verified response policy. An official with the California Alarm Association suggested working with the repeated abusers, the ``dirty dozen,'' to stop the problem from happening. Angie Valencia-Martinez, (805) 583-7604 angie.valencia(at)dailynews.com |
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