PINELLAS COUNTY - The Pinellas Sheriff's Office is taking the first step in the review of a proposed ordinance which is designed to help reduce the number of false alarms in the Sheriff's jurisdiction.
The ordinance would affect homeowners and business owners-operators in the unincorporated area and in those cities where the Sheriff provides law enforcement services.
The Sheriff's Office will ask the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners for approval on Tuesday, Jan. 20, to have ordinance advertised for public hearing and review.
The ordinance would require homeowners and business owners with a security alarm to register the alarm with the Sheriff's Office. There is no registration fee. Under the plan, the registered home or business owner gets two free passes if their alarm is activated twice in error. The third false alarm of a registered owner incurs a $75 fine which increases with further false alarms.
The fines are greater for non-registered alarm owners. There are no free passes. The first false alarm incurs a fine of $175 which increases to $200 after four false alarms. The fines increase from there.
According to Sheriff Jim Coats, "The alarm ordinance is part of our on-going effort to run our organization more efficiently."
A recent study from November 2007 to November 2008 showed that 99 percent of more than 14,000 alarm calls received by the Sheriff's Office were false alarms. During that period alone, deputies responded to an average of 40 false alarm calls daily.
"When you think that a deputy sheriff can spend an average of half an hour at each call, that time adds up," Coats said. "We would rather not fine anyone, but the purpose of this ordinance is to work with the public to better manage this false alarm issue."
If approved, the alarm program will be assigned to the Sheriff's Crime Prevention Unit, and the public will be given ample time to learn more about the program and register their alarm systems.
