The Town of Prescott Valley has started enforcing its new false alarm ordinance. The ordinance is intended to reduce false alarm calls by 50 percent or more through education, assessments for repeated false alarms and enhanced call verification.
Prescott Valley Police officers respond to more than 1,000 false alarm calls each year. Less than one percent of these have been found to be actual criminal events. In FY2012-2013, officers spent almost 700 hours responding to false alarms. Police officials said this time can be better spent conducting pro-active patrols, positive community contacts and other police services in the town. The police department hopes to recover 300 plus hours of patrol time in the first full year of enforcement of this code, and save associated costs of responding to false alarms.
Starting this week, locations in Prescott Valley will be required to register their system when they have their first false alarm. When a location has a second or subsequent false alarm during a 365 day period, the alarm user will be charged an assessment of $52. If the user passes an online alarm prevention course through FARP, the second alarm within a 365 day period may be waived. The code also requires alarm monitoring stations to call two numbers in an attempt to reach a responsible party before calling police to respond to an alarm.
Contact information for the Public Safety Corporation (PSC), which has been contracted for administration of the program, is 855-725-7106. Mailing Address is P.O. Box 29815, Phoenix, AZ 85038-9815. Website: https://www.crywolf.us/prescottvalleyaz
Cmdr. James Edelstein is the assigned alarm coordinator who will work with PSC.
“This ordinance was structured to increase police services through reduction of responses to false alarm calls. Unlike many other jurisdictions, we chose only to impact with mandatory registration those residents and community members who have false alarms. The system is built to encourage the responsible use of alarms,” Edelstein said.
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