The Summit County Sheriff’s Department in Park City, Utah, had reportedly created a plan to avoid the loss of time and money associated with responding to false alarms that result from in homes and businesses—they plan to stop responding to unverified calls that are the result of an alarm system.
Previously the local authorities had plan to stop responding to alarms that were unverified after March 1, but they have instead decided they will continue to respond to all calls until the end of 2013.
The decision was made after a series of meetings was held between the Utah Alarm Association and the Sherriff’s Department.
“For the rest of 2013, we’re going to continue to respond to alarms the way we have been, and then see what the County Council decides to do with us in 2014 and readdress it then,” Sheriff’s Captain Justin Martinez said.
Martinez noted that one reason for the decision was because weren’t able to adequately respond to the residents of Summit County.
“They don’t have response teams up here,” he said. “In the Salt Lake Valley, alarm companies have the ability for responders to go to the residences and check them. But they don’t have them up here, and it puts them in a more precarious situation than in the valley.”
“In the meantime, we are in communications with the Utah Alarm Association and we’re trying to come to a solution that, at the end of the day, is going to benefit the alarm companies, the citizens and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.”
Although the Sheriff’s Department will continue to respond to calls that come from , regardless of whether they are verified or unverified, the Department will categorize them as a low priority situation.
Ed Bruerton, who serves as the Director of the Utah Alarm Association says it all depends on the amount of energy exerted in the responses provided. He also said that while officers will respond to an alarm system call if there’s time, they often put other calls, such as wrecks or robberies ahead of alarm calls. Bruerton added that even though there are other calls for service, the Sheriff’s Department should make every attempt to respond to calls fromwhen possible.
“Because the burglars don’t know if somebody is coming,”he said. “They expect somebody is. When the alarm goes off, they assume someone is coming and they get the heck out of there. But if the word gets out that the deputies never come, you’ve lost that deterrent value.”
“But assuming the sheriff is going to make a good faith effort to do what he can with what he’s got, that’s all we ask,” he said.
Tim Eveler
Author & Public Relations – Tim has been working in sales for the home security system industry over twelveyears. He’s held positions at large home security companies and in charge of working with the team to create our security system reviews.