Was that a Burgler Alarm??? Nahhhh....

[stormiestl]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in a prosperous
Californian city near San Francisco will begin ignoring most
burglar alarms, prompted by too many false alarms and too
little money.

Fremont police said the overwhelming majority of warning
signals they receive are false alarms that cost the city
$600,000 a year. Because of budget cuts, starting next month
they will only respond if they have additional verification,
such as a video feed of a crime occurring or a witness report.

"We had 7,000 alarm calls last year and 66 of those were
burglary," police chief Craig Steckler told KTVU television.
"What do you want us to do?"

Several large cities have similar policies, including Salt
Lake City, Milwaukee and Las Vegas, the police department said.

The city estimates 41 percent of Fremont's 209,000
residents earn more than $100,000 a year.

But California's state and local governments have faced
money problems in recent years. Salinas, author John
Steinbeck's hometown, recently said it would close all its
libraries for financial reasons.

Comments

[njyoder.livejournal.com]

Jesus, that's 19 false alarms per day in a suburb of SF. Only 0.94% of 7000 are valid! The insanity...