Residents and business owners in Lawrenceville will soon find fines in their mailboxes if they accidentally set off too many false burglar alarms.
City Council adopted an ordinance Monday evening that levies fines against residents after their third false alarm and businesses after their second false alarm. The decision comes after a monthslong discussion that started among city officials and law enforcement in February regarding high false alarm rates.
Residents will pay $25 for their third false alarm and $100 for any subsequent false alarms. Businesses will be fined $50 for their second false alarm, $200 for their third false alarm and $400 for any subsequent false alarms.
Lawrenceville Police Department received an average of 2,700 yearly alarm calls from 2015 to 2019, according to Chief Tim Wallis. Only about six of those calls each year warranted a police response.
Wallis estimated at a meeting earlier this year that it cost just shy of $375,000 to send two officers out to every alarm call. He said he hopes the new ordinance prevents the department from wasting resources by sending out officers for false alarms.
The ordinance states that anyone who installs an alarm system will be required to register it with the city for free. But existing users won’t be forced to register until they receive their first false alarm notice, Wallis said.
Keith Roche was the only councilmember to vote against the ordinance. Troubled by it from the get-go, he said it’s a “draconian” ordinance to solve a problem that the city created years ago by not getting ahead of the issue sooner. He added that it’d be difficult to communicate the ordinance to the public.
“I see this being difficult to enforce,” Roche said. “I see a lot of bureaucracy with it, and I think there’s a better way to do it. We just haven’t explored that yet.”
Councilmember Glenn Martin said the ordinance seemed like overkill for a problem the city could’ve addressed earlier, but it will take care of the “frequent flyers” who set off multiple false alarms each year.
Lawrenceville’s approach to curbing false alarms is less onerous than ordinances passed by nearby cities, said Mayor David Still. Other cities in metro Atlanta — including Dunwoody, Roswell and Sandy Springs — have all passed false alarm ordinances.
Officers respond to more false alarms from businesses than residents on average, Wallis said. The ordinance approved Monday carries smaller fines and more “freebies” for false alarms than the ordinance initially proposed in February.
Central Square, a technology company focused on the public sector, will issue the false alarm notices and fines for the city. It will keep 35% of all revenue from the fines while the city keeps the rest, Wallis said.
The ordinance also places a burden on alarm companies to provide contact information for their customers if an alarm goes off. Companies will be required to explain to customers how to use their alarm system and go over a false-alarm prevention checklist with them.
Violators of the false alarm ordinance will start receiving notices in about 60 days, said City Manager Chuck Warbington. Anyone who receives notice of a false alarm will be able to appeal it, and every individual’s false-alarm count resets every 12 months from the registration date of their system.
“This allows us — instead of being out there all the time — to have people start being held accountable for their faulty alarms,” Still said. “This helps our police force.”
