Item 4 - PH/Ord. on Alarms - Laserfiche WebLink

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Financial and/or Resource Considerations No reduction of revenue will occur because the registration and permit fee programs have not been utilized. Attachment B, the one-year report on the implementation of the police department's verified response protocol, has documented that the equivalent labor hours of five FTEs have been saved by reducing the police response to false alarm calls. The fire alarm information gathering function, originally envisioned as coming from this expanded program, has been successfully assumed by existing fire staff working in Eugene Fire Marshal's Office. Other Background Information Ordinance No. 20233 (adopted on September 6, 2001) and Ordinance No. 20043 (adopted on May 1, 1996), respectively, established an alarm permit registration program and incrementally increased fees for repeated false alarms occurring at the same location. Prior to completing the administrative rule to establish permit fees and penalties, additional information was received by the police department regarding the nationwide law enforcement transition to a "verified response" to alarms. The implementation of a verified response strategy was providing very positive reports of reduced false alarms with significant savings in personnel costs both from the reduced patrol officer response to alarms and from the reduction of administrative staff necessary to administer the false alarm programs. The reports of direct and indirect cost savings when coupled with the police department's urgent need to address critical understaffing in the patrol division caused the department to stop work on the administrative rules and the false alarm provisions of the code were not enforced. In August 2002, prior to implementing the verified response protocol, the dispatch priority for police response to all intrusion alarms was reduced. On November 15, 2002, following meetings with alarm service providers and community members, the police chief implemented the verified response protocol which requires security alarm service providers to confirm that a valid alarm has occurred before calling the police. Robbery?hold-up, panic?duress alarms, and response to businesses licensed to se//firearms, have continued to receive an immediate police response and do not require verification. After consultation with the City Attorney, the regulatory authority from City code was left intact, although unused until a one-year evaluation could assess the effectiveness of the verified response protocol. With the completion of the positive review of verified response, the department has now returned to the council to remove unnecessary regulatory authority for alarms from the City code. Nationally, 95-98 percent of all alarm calls are false alarms. In Eugene in 2001, Central Lane 9-1-1 received 5,944 alarm calls requiring police response. Of those 5944 calls, 98.5% were false, meaning that only 88 of those calls resulted in a police report and only 10 of those calls resulted in a burglar being apprehended at the scene of the crime. The first year of verified response implementation has resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of dispatched alarms, an increase in the police reports of a crime incident having taken place and a significant decrease in response time to verified calls. (Attachment B provides a more thorough analysis of the verified response protocol effectiveness.) Eugene's experience with false fire alarms has been below national averages for communities of similar size, code provisions were not primarily adopted to reduce fire department response to fire calls (the focus of the code provisions had been false burglary alarms). When fire crews determine that a particular location or occupancy is causing them to respond to repeated false alarms (either due to construction work, maintenance shortfalls or aberrant behavior), it is immediately reported to the Fire Marshal's Office. Because the pre-existing civil penalty process had proven to be a slow and L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040712\S0407124.DOC