Executive Committee Considers Updated Alarm Response Bylaw
It might be a major way to prevent crime for local businesses but if your burglar alarm is prone to call in a lot of Henny Penny false alarms to the Moose Jaw Police Service it may cost your business some extra cash if a proposed new alarm bylaw is approved.
At their most recent meeting Executive Committee was asked by the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners (MJBPC) to approve a new and updated Alarm Response Bylaw due to increased costs operating the program and the rising number of false alarms.
The initial Alarm Business Response Service Bylaw #5154 was adopted in 2002 as a means to combat the rising number of false alarms which once adopted resulted in a substantial drop in the number of false alarms to the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS).
The proposed updated Alarm Response Bylaw #5637 brought to Executive Committee from the MJBPC is designed to address the increase of false alarms by businesses to the MJPS as well as the costs to maintain and operate the program.
The MJBPC is requesting raising the current registration fee from $15 to $25 and the false alarm fee be raised from $75 to $100. The program takes up a 1/4 or .25 employee time to administer it.
The proposed bylaw has three specific purposes":
To allow the continuation of an Alarm Response Service.
To set the terms and conditions of the use of the Alarm Response Service.
To set the fees for the use of the Alarm Response Service.
According to MJPS statistics there has been 925 false alarms in the past three years.
False Alarm Calls over the last three years are:
2018: 308 calls
2019: 381 calls
2020: 236 calls
Under terms of the program businesses are allowed two false alarms in a 355 day period at which time they are suspended from the program and they then must use a 1 - 900 phone service to call in all alarm calls. The 1 - 900 service charges the alarm monitoring company a $75 fee.
False Alarm Calls that would be charges a $75 for using the 900 line:
2018: 94 calls
2019: 63 calls
2020: 101 calls
Raising the registration fee by $10 at the time businesses’ re-new their registration in the program is projected to bring in an additional $20,000.
Additionally the MJPS statistics point out an increase in the number of businesses joining the alarm monitoring program:
2018: 513 new permits
2019: 343 new permits
2020: 139 new permits
The MJPS expect to set up 350 - 400 permits in 2021.
Committee Discussion
“We want to establish a fee for false alarms. False alarms fire department and police department wise are issues that take a lot of resource and we need to take a way to have some penalties for the businesses that will not look after their false alarms and continue to expect police and fire to continue to respond to them,” city manager Jim Puffalt said.
Mayor Fraser Tolmie - who also chairs the MJBPC - described the increasing fees as “a housekeeping item” which is in line with what other communities and the present Moose Jaw Fire Department (MJFD) policies.
In 2018 during Council discussions to implement a new Fire Bylaw for the MJFD the issue of repeated false alarms and attaching a fee to them was necessary to encourage alarm companies to fix their alarms.
Councillor Doug Blanc asked what mechanism there was to ensure alarm companies or businesses to register their alarms with the program.
“What mechanism do we have to ensure that they register?” Councillor Blanc asked.
Executive Committee was told there was no way to ensure all businesses with alarms are part of the program, but when an alarm is called in for a non-registered business the alarm company is not allowed to report the alarm but they are immediately re-directed to call the 1 -900 line resulting in a $75 charge.
“When the alarm goes off and there is no permit they are directed to call the 1 - 900 line,” Keri Taschuk with the MJPS said.
In a unanimous vote Executive Committee voted to have the proposed bylaw drawn up and presented for 1st, 2nd and 3rd readings at the next regular meeting of Council on April 12th.