Rexburg considering fines for false alarms

by Ben Caballero CAB03003@BYUI.EDU News Asst. Editor

Rexburg City Council plans to discuss an ordinance this fall that will penalize businesses whose buildings have too many false alarms.

Rexburg police, who respond to each alarm, are concerned by the frequency of these false alarms and the amount of time spent investigating them.

Rexburg police respond to false alarms frequently, and in many cases to the same location many times, said Captain Randy Lewis of the Rexburg Police Department. When they investigate the same place too often, officers inevitably become complacent. Lewis said he worries that in the event of a real alarm, the officers would be caught off guard in a possibly dangerous situation. He said it is the businesses’ responsibility not to hamper the police by keeping their alarms legitimate.

Steven Zollinger, Rexburg’s city attorney, has been putting together the ordinance that, if passed, will fine businesses whose buildings’ false alarms occur too frequently. The fines will occur when they exceed a certain amount of false alarms in a specified period of time. Zollinger said businesses will probably be charged a greater amount the more their alarms falsely trigger.

Lewis said almost all the alarms occurring while he has been on the Rexburg police force have been false. He cites lack of upkeep, faulty alarm systems and improperly trained employees as contributing factors.

The proposed ordinance’s intent will be to encourage businesses to better maintain or upgrade their alarm systems to reduce the frequency of them triggering falsely, said Zollinger. The ordinance will not have the ability to act on alarm companies themselves, rather, the businesses who do not respond to and fix problems in their system after their alarms falsely trigger.

“We have no problem responding to alarms,” he said, “but we are concerned by the lack of response on the property owners’ part when their system is sending false alarms.”

Efforts to reduce false alarms in Rexburg coincide with an increasing number of businesses in the area installing alarm systems. With recent incidents of crimes, small businesses have been beefing up security.

Since Aug. 8, Rexburg Police have responded to at least 15 false alarms.

Captain Lewis suggests businesses reduce false alarms by making sure they purchase from a legitimate alarm company, train their employees to use the alarm, make sure they service the alarm and ultimately locate and fix the problem when their alarm begins triggering falsely.