Council questions fee-based ordinance for burglar alarms

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Menifee City Council members on Wednesday chose not to adopt a fee-based ordinance regarding commercial and residential burglar alarms in the city.

A presentation by the Menifee Police Department proposed an ordinance designed to reduce the large number of false alarm calls requiring police manpower. According to the presentation, Menifee PD received 1,881 alarm calls from July 1, 2020 through Jan. 28. Of those, 1,635 were dispatched to officers. Of the 1,881 calls, only 18 – less than 1 percent – were found to be legitimate alarms. In addition, 63 percent of the commercial false alarms came from repeat locations.

The ordinance proposal described a system in which businesses would register their burglar alarm for a $35 fee ($20 for two alarms). For residential alarm systems, the registration fee would be $25 ($10 for two alarms). A non-compliance fee of $60 ($50 for residences) would be imposed.

The ordinance would allow for one false alarm per year without a fine being imposed. After that, the proposed fine would be $25 for the next offense, then $100, $200 and $300 for additional violations.

The proposal acknowledged that a majority of false alarms are due to user error, such as inputting the incorrect pass code, but that even though such false alarms are not intentional, they take officers away from normal patrol duties.

Council members expressed concern about requiring registration of all active alarm systems, which would require residents to not only pay a fee, but to give personal contact information to the police department. After much discussion, council members asked the police department and city staff to return with a revised ordinance proposal including fines for false alarms, but no registration process.

Council member Bob Karwin expressed concern that although the police department proposal listed fee amounts for other cities that have false alarm policies, no data was included to show whether the system actually reduced the number of false alarms. He questioned the necessity of paying a third party company to process the registrations and bill businesses and residences, as the ordinance proposed.

“I’m troubled by the fact that you have no data to show that this works,” Karwin said, addressing Menifee Police Captain Dave Gutierrez, who made the presentation. “This looks like a dummy tax; you’re penalizing people for being dumb. People will decide not to set their alarm because they’re fearful of getting a [police] responder fee.

“The idea of having people register with police to receive police protection is frightening to me. You’re talking about creating a database of private information. My job is protect citizens from the government. If the purpose of this is to cut down on false alarms … it’s not going to do that.”

Council member Dean Deines expressed similar concerns, saying he feared residents would turn off their alarm systems rather than being forced to register them.

“By scaring people into turning off their alarms, will this make the city safer?” Deines asked. “If the resident wants to have their personal information on file with the police department, that’s fine, but a lot of people would rather not give that information.

“No one has reached out to the residents about this proposal. It’s going to come as a real surprise. Asking maybe thousands of homeowners with alarms to register because of 200-some repeat offenders is a concern. If you did all that outreach before we voted on this, I might be more willing to consider it.”

Mayor Bill Zimmerman said that in a meeting with other local mayors on another topic this week, he asked for their thoughts on the proposal.

“The majority of mayors cautioned me about this,” Zimmerman said. “They said, ‘You would be creating new layers of big government. Be careful you don’t irritate the public with this. You just started your own police department and you’re trying to build trust. Put together a program that goes after violators, not a program of registration.”

Deines asked whether police staff had considered a voluntary registration system, to which Gutierrez replied, “If it’s not a requirement, there’s much less buy-in.”

According to the proposal document, “The reason for requiring alarms to be registered is to obtain the alarm owner’s name to allow false alarms to be turned off. In addition, registration/permitting provides the police department with emergency contact information in case of a true emergency.”

City manager Armando Villa defended the proposal for a registration process.

“Policies that have no teeth are not enforceable,” he said. “A voluntary [registration] program is not as successful. This is an attempt to do something about response times. We have data that shows that it works. We didn’t bring that to you tonight.”

Realizing that council members were not going to adopt the ordinance, Villa suggested the city hold a public workshop and explore other methods of informing the public about the proposal. Gutierrez said police had plans to meet with neighborhood HOAs as well.

A revised ordinance proposal will be considered at an upcoming council meeting.