San Rafael May Fine Residents For Accidental Burglar Alarms
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) – Residents in a North Bay community who trip their burglar alarm could soon be slapped with a fine.
The City of San Rafael is considering a plan to crack down on false alarms. At the city's dispatch center, the 4th most common calls for help are generated by burglar alarms in homes and businesses.
Last year, they had 2,400 burglary calls, nearly seven a day, with each one requiring multiple officers to respond. The problem: 99 percent of the alarms were false.
"For us, after we got our statistics for last year, we we're like, this is really a drain on us," Lt. Dan Fink of the San Rafael Police Department told KPIX 5. We don't have the time and resources for this. We need to figure out how to make this better."
The city council is considering an ordinance to fine owners of systems that generate false alarms. Fines for a first offense would be $50, but escalate for multiple false alarms.
If the proposal is approved by the council at Tuesday's meeting, the ordinance would go into effect on January 1st.