Verified Alarm Policy
Police Commission Staff Recommendation

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Verified Alarm Response issue will be discussed at the Police Commission meeting on June 17, 2003. The meeting will be held at the Public Works Boardroom, City Hall, at 9:30 am.

June 6, 2003

The Staff of the Police Commission, led by its new Executive Director Daniel R. Koening and ably assisted by Lieutenant Debra Kirk, has studied the recommendations of the City Council's Burglar Alarm Task Force and has prepared a series of recommendations of its own.

The issue will come before the Commission as a whole on Tuesday, June 17th, at the regular Police Commission meeting. A number of documents and reports have preceded this discussion.

You'll find them conveniently presented in a list below.

Los Angeles Community Policing has diligently followed the topic for more than a year, and presents this compilation for your consideration and review.

As a brief background you should know that the issue of how the LAPD should deal with responding to Burglar Alarms is not a new issue. It's literally been under review for years.

But the latest round began when the current Commission and its Staff studied the situation over the majority of 2002 and accepted a new policy, explained in a Policy Paper on January 16, 2003.

Essentially the "Verified Response Alarm" policy requires some version of secondary verification before an alarm will be answered. It's based on the fact that a tremendous amount of patrol time is spent answering alarm calls that are false alarms (about 15% of a patrol officer's time, estimated to cost something "in excess of $11 million a year").

The Alarm Companies "alerted" the Neighborhood Councils to the issue, raising stakeholders' concerns, and brought the item before City Council asking it be overturned. The policy was reviewed through the Public Safety and Education and Neighborhood Committees, and survived a vote on the floor of City Council.

But the Council wished to convene a Burglar Alarm Task Force (BAT Force) to study the new policy, and LAPD agreed to voluntarily hold off putting the Verified Response Policy into effect. The Police Commission agreed that an opportunity be given to hear from the Burglar Alarm Task Force, which has met numerous times in the ensuing months.

Mr. Ronald F. Deaton, the Chief Legislative Analyst of the City Council, was asked to chair these meetings, and the Task Force itself was comprised of community members, government officials, LA Police Department, LA Fire Department and Alarm Industry representatives, among others.

Eventually the Burglar Alarm Task Force compiled a report that contained 31 recommendations, issued on April 22nd.

Here then is LACP's presentation, a compilation that includes a set of documents just released by the Police Commission Staff which comprise its review and response to the Burglar Alarm Task Force recommendations:

Verified Alarm Policy
Police Commission Policy Paper
The original "Verified Alarm Policy" paper and a letter
from Commission President Rick Caruso
January 16, 2003

Burglar Alarm Task Force
Invitation to Participate in Meetings
The original invitation written in the form of a letter
from Mr. Ron Deaton, CLO of City Council
February 14, 2003

Burglar Alarm Task Force
Agenda of the Final BAT Force Meeting
The final agenda, listing the members of the BAT Force
and chaired by Mr. Ron Deaton, CLO of City Council
April 11, 2003

Analysis of Recommendations
from the Burglar Alarm Task Force
Background, discussion and recommendations
(more detailed explanation of the Commission Staff's position on
each of the 31 BAT Force recommendations of April 22, 2003)
May 22, 2003

Verified Alarm Policy
Police Commission Staff Recommendation
Staff recommendations to the Police Commission
explained in a letter by Executive Director Dan Koening
June 2, 2003

Verified Alarm Policy
Police Commission Staff Recommendation
Staff recommendations to BAT Force's Ron Deaton
explained in a letter by Executive Director Dan Koening
June 2, 2003

Commission Investigation Division
Analysis of Burglar Alarm Task Force
Background, discussion and recommendations
(shorter explanation of reasons for recommendations)
June 4, 2003

See also "Public Safety Alert" sent out to the Neighborhood Councils by the California Alarm Association recently and the perspective of Greg Fitchitt, Vice president of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council:

Greg Fitchitt
Letter to the Editor
June 11, 2003

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Verified Alarm Response issue will be discussed at the next Police Commission meeting on June 17, 2003. The meeting will be held at the Public Works Boardroom, City Hall, at 9:30 am.