TOUGHER ALARM POLICY SOUGHT.Byline: James Nash Staff Writer Armed with statistics showing the LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. still responds to more than 6,000 false burglar BURGLAR. One who commits a burglary. (q. v.) alarms a month, Chief William Bratton says he wants to toughen the year-old policy designed to limit officer response to unverified alarms. Bratton said the policy that Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . officers will not respond to unverified alarms at addresses
with two or more false alarms in a year hasn't sufficiently
relieved police of the burden of chasing false alarms.
``I'll make an effort again next year to get us out of the alarm business,'' Bratton said in a recent interview. ``Am I happy there's been an improvement? Yes. ``But we're still spending way too much time responding to false alarms when we should be using those officers for crime suppression.'' When Bratton proposed ending LAPD response to burglar alarms in 2003, alarm company managers and homeowners associations led an effort to continue the responses, saying break-ins would increase if burglars knew police wouldn't respond. Mayor James Hahn For the Iowa politician, see . James Kenneth "Jim" Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. He was the Deputy City Attorney (1975-1979), City Controller (1981-1985), City Attorney (1985-2001) and Mayor of Los Angeles, California and City Council members negotiated a compromise in which police would no longer respond to addresses with two or more false alarms in a year and stiffen stiff·en tr. & intr.v. stiff·ened, stiff·en·ing, stiff·ens To make or become stiff or stiffer. stiff fines for false alarms. Since Nov. 8, property owners face $115 bills for the first false alarm. LAPD statistics for September - the most recent available - show that police responded to 21 percent fewer false alarms than a year earlier, but that 98 percent were not for actual burglaries - up slightly from 2003. Hahn said he expects the tougher fines to persuade more alarm owners to fix malfunctioning mal·func·tion intr.v. mal·func·tioned, mal·func·tion·ing, mal·func·tions 1. To fail to function. 2. To function improperly. n. 1. Failure to function. 2. devices, further reducing the number of phony alarm dispatches. ``After a year, I think we should look at (the policy),'' Hahn said. ``But I think we accomplished something, which is reducing the amount of officer time spent responding to false alarms, which is a good thing.'' Some advocates of continued police response to alarms said Bratton would face significant resistance if he tries to toughen the policy. ``There's clear evidence that there has been a 25 percent reduction (in alarm calls), said Kenneth Gerston, president of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and a member of the committee that worked on the policy in 2003. ``That's a big difference. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what else he wants.'' Police Commission President David Cunningham David Cunningham may refer to:
``A year into the policy, if you were to simply look at the number of calls and the number of alarms dispatched, the policy has had the desired effect,'' Cunningham said. ``Is it optimal? No. Is it significant? Yes.'' Skobin said he would be reluctant to change the policy without convening con·vene v. con·vened, con·ven·ing, con·venes v.intr. To come together usually for an official or public purpose; assemble formally. v.tr. 1. the same parties - police, elected officials, homeowners representatives and alarm company managers - who forged the compromise on the year-old policy. James Nash, (213) 978-0390 james.nash(at)dailynews.com |
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