When Shawnee city commissioners heard a proposal for a new alarm system ordinance during their Aug. 16 meeting, all seemed to support the idea until Vice Mayor Frank Sims said he believed the fines were too low.
“I’m afraid if we approve this, 10 years from now, we’ll be back where we were,” Sims said. “If this is a persistent problem, there should be teeth in this.”
The vice mayor suggested fines be doubled in some instances, and increased as much as 400 percent in others. But two commissioners, John Winterringer and James Harrod, who have personal and business alarms, said they were uncertain about increasing the fines by those amounts.
“We need to be careful on how much is charged,” Winterringer said. “We could go overboard. But all the time, it is at the discretion of the police department on whether it is an excessive alarm going off or not.”
Winterringer said he received numerous calls about the issue, primarily from business owners and an alarm company owner. He said they were troubled by the amounts proposed by Sims, as well.
“People are concerned about it, especially those who are not used to monitoring, and having that done by the city,” he said. “It’s something that’s been misused by a few but I totally understand the police can’t answer all the false alarms and still do their other jobs. It does work in other cities and something has to be done about it. Having a database would help by letting the police be able to contact someone.”
Winterringer said he doesn’t oppose the ordinance, which requires an initial registration and fee, along with an annual renewal, or the fines but said the increases Sims proposed didn’t seem realistic and reasonable to him.
“I believe the thing needs in place and I’m in support of the program because the police need the database in place,” he said. “But I’m concerned that it’s way too much given the times and economics.”
He said he believes he has a better solution, which would be to pass the ordinance as presented by Shawnee Police Chief Russell Frantz.
“I believe our police chief is doing the right thing to solve the problem and it’s not about making revenue,” he said. “I say we implement the program and review it annually and raise it if needed. A lot of other towns have one in place and it’s keeping down the false alarms in those cities.”
Frantz said the ordinance isn’t intended to cause any strain on alarm system customers’ budgets and isn’t intended to generate additional income for the city. He said the purpose is to address a problem that keeps his officers from being available to handle issues that aren’t false alarms.
“We’re not looking to make revenue; we’re looking to solve problems,” he said. “When our officers answer false alarms they are taken away from their other duties. We spend an incredible amount of time chasing alarm malfunctions or false alarms caused by users not keying in codes properly. But we are not looking at this as a moneymaker.”
Frantz said by requiring registration with the city, it would help not only the business or home owners but also their neighbors, officers and others who need an officer’s assistance.
“We had a break-in at a building with no one to notify and that takes two officers off the street,” he said. “We don’t want to tie up an officer to play security guard. If an officer is stuck protecting someone else’s property, the officer is not protecting other services. So the other part is with the permit and registration, we have a point of contact. On the alarms out there now, we have several we have no one to call. It’s not a majority. It’s a minority that causes their neighbors a problem.”
Frantz said last year, his officers responded to about 1,600 business alarms and more than 550 residential alarms, although not all those were false alarms.
“If an alarm goes off, we’re going to respond but we don’t need to be responding to false alarms,” he said. “It’s very rare any are actual break-ins. And there are too many systems out there that have chronic malfunction problems and people are not responsible to fix them. They take the police response away from people who need real people assistance.”
Commissioners will address the issue and vote to approve or reject the ordinance at an upcoming meeting.
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When Shawnee city commissioners heard a proposal for a new alarm system ordinance during their Aug. 16 meeting, all seemed to support the idea until Vice Mayor Frank Sims said he believed the fines were too low.
“I’m afraid if we approve this, 10 years from now, we’ll be back where we were,” Sims said. “If this is a persistent problem, there should be teeth in this.”
The vice mayor suggested fines be doubled in some instances, and increased as much as 400 percent in others. But two commissioners, John Winterringer and James Harrod, who have personal and business alarms, said they were uncertain about increasing the fines by those amounts.
“We need to be careful on how much is charged,” Winterringer said. “We could go overboard. But all the time, it is at the discretion of the police department on whether it is an excessive alarm going off or not.”
Winterringer said he received numerous calls about the issue, primarily from business owners and an alarm company owner. He said they were troubled by the amounts proposed by Sims, as well.
“People are concerned about it, especially those who are not used to monitoring, and having that done by the city,” he said. “It’s something that’s been misused by a few but I totally understand the police can’t answer all the false alarms and still do their other jobs. It does work in other cities and something has to be done about it. Having a database would help by letting the police be able to contact someone.”
Winterringer said he doesn’t oppose the ordinance, which requires an initial registration and fee, along with an annual renewal, or the fines but said the increases Sims proposed didn’t seem realistic and reasonable to him.
“I believe the thing needs in place and I’m in support of the program because the police need the database in place,” he said. “But I’m concerned that it’s way too much given the times and economics.”
He said he believes he has a better solution, which would be to pass the ordinance as presented by Shawnee Police Chief Russell Frantz.
“I believe our police chief is doing the right thing to solve the problem and it’s not about making revenue,” he said. “I say we implement the program and review it annually and raise it if needed. A lot of other towns have one in place and it’s keeping down the false alarms in those cities.”
Frantz said the ordinance isn’t intended to cause any strain on alarm system customers’ budgets and isn’t intended to generate additional income for the city. He said the purpose is to address a problem that keeps his officers from being available to handle issues that aren’t false alarms.
“We’re not looking to make revenue; we’re looking to solve problems,” he said. “When our officers answer false alarms they are taken away from their other duties. We spend an incredible amount of time chasing alarm malfunctions or false alarms caused by users not keying in codes properly. But we are not looking at this as a moneymaker.”
Frantz said by requiring registration with the city, it would help not only the business or home owners but also their neighbors, officers and others who need an officer’s assistance.
“We had a break-in at a building with no one to notify and that takes two officers off the street,” he said. “We don’t want to tie up an officer to play security guard. If an officer is stuck protecting someone else’s property, the officer is not protecting other services. So the other part is with the permit and registration, we have a point of contact. On the alarms out there now, we have several we have no one to call. It’s not a majority. It’s a minority that causes their neighbors a problem.”
Frantz said last year, his officers responded to about 1,600 business alarms and more than 550 residential alarms, although not all those were false alarms.
“If an alarm goes off, we’re going to respond but we don’t need to be responding to false alarms,” he said. “It’s very rare any are actual break-ins. And there are too many systems out there that have chronic malfunction problems and people are not responsible to fix them. They take the police response away from people who need real people assistance.”
Commissioners will address the issue and vote to approve or reject the ordinance at an upcoming meeting.
