To Protect and Serve "Whatever"

[Riverdog]

Let me start by stating that I don't make a habit of making contact with the police and I don't have some ticket that I am bent out of shape about, so this isn't some rant against cops, but more against the Douglas County sheriff department as a whole.
So last week the alarm on my house was set off in the middle of the day and the alarm company called the Douglas County Sheriff to go and check it out. They were unable to find any criminal activity, so they considered it a false alarm. Mind you just 2 months ago my garage door was kicked in and as I mentioned in my "Sick of the Scum" thread the neighborhood hasn't exactly been that stellar; with vandals and petty breakins. I have a large dog so I cannot have motion detectors; only broken glass or window/doors being tampered with will set it off. So there is a good chance someone was attempting to get in.
This is where the bull shit starts. I received a letter from Douglas County Sheriff stating that there would be no charge for this incident, but that if there were any other false alarms that the alarm company would be charged $100 for each incident, which in turn would be forwarded on to me. I might be able to understand this, if this were a case of multiple false alarms, which I am not so sure it was. So one false alarm and I am on some list for them to start building revenue off of.
I am now in the process of writing a letter to the alarm company asking them to change my policy to not to contact the sheriff's department, but rather contact me and I will have to go check it out myself. This means I could be walking into a broken in home with the criminal still possibly inside, because the Douglas County Sheriff is dodging there responsibilities as a law enforcement office. Is this not what I pay taxes for. I know cops don't want to hear I pay your salary but screw them, because taxes do pay there salary. If I speed and I am cited for the offence, then I will take my lumps for doing so. And I will just see it as the officer is just doing his job, but in this case they are not doing there job.
I do not blame the deputy for this crap policy, because they have nothing to do with it, but rather the Sheriff who sits in an elected position. So come voting time I assure you Sheriff David A. Weaver will not be getting my vote :banghead:

[Ricky]

Change your insurance to a $100 deductible, lol. Then stop paying your alarm company. Problem solved, and you save money.

[Riverdog]

If it were that simple. Alarm company is a contract, so that would just be a fight with them, who I do not have aproblem with. And to bring my home owners down to a $100 deductible would increase my rates far above what I would consider saving money.


Change your insurance to a $100 deductible, lol. Then stop paying your alarm company. Problem solved, and you save money.

[willb003]

Well that is pretty crappy.

[Ricky]

If it were that simple. Alarm company is a contract, so that would just be a fight with them, who I do not have aproblem with. And to bring my home owners down to a $100 deductible would increase my rates far above what I would consider saving money.

Really? If you were able to cancel your alarm company (let's guestimate $25/mo) and lower your deductible to $100, you'd pay more than $25/mo more for your insurance alone? That sounds somewhat unrealistic unless you're insuring $0.5m

[ChrisCBX]

Longmont PD charged me $75 for my first (and only) false alarm. :(

[Wintermute]

You didn't tell us why the alarm went off. Did you find broken glass or evidence of tampering or was it your dog that set it off?

I'll agree, if you found evidence of an attempted break-in, then this is bullshit because it wasn't a false alarm. If your dog set it off, then you need to make sure that the dog is kept away from the alarm.

Because the po-po have a point, it's not their job to check your house every time Bowser sets off the alarm. That's why they have the fine, so that homeowners deal with situations that cause wasteful false alarms.

In the end, if this is the first time this has happened, why sweat it?

[Riverdog]

No motion detectors, dog cannot set it off. Like I said either glass needs to be broken or the someone needs to be pulling on a window or door. There is nothing to keep the dog away from. It is a big deal because if it happens again I get the $100 bill. Just because the door or window was not kicked in does not mean someone was not attempting to get in. Like I said I will just take the sheriff department out of the equation.


You didn't tell us why the alarm went off. Did you find broken glass or evidence of tampering or was it your dog that set it off?

I'll agree, if you found evidence of an attempted break-in, then this is bullshit because it wasn't a false alarm. If your dog set it off, then you need to make sure that the dog is kept away from the alarm.

Because the po-po have a point, it's not their job to check your house every time Bowser sets off the alarm. That's why they have the fine, so that homeowners deal with situations that cause wasteful false alarms.

In the end, if this is the first time this has happened, why sweat it?

[Captain Obvious]

I too pay taxes. And I do not feel that my tax money should be used to pay the local law enforcement salaries to trot by your house and shake your doors and windows. They should be out patrolling for rapists, murderers, soccer moms on cell phones on the interstate, and even speeders instead of investigating the THOUSANDS of false alarms that occur weekly.

Here is the thing. The alarm company makes money off of you to maintain service. They in turn, contact the police when an alarm comes in, costing all of $12 per hour to have one person monitoring thousands of accounts at once. Perhaps you should reevaluate your alarm company and contract, really what are they doing for you for your monthly payments? If you have a contract with your alarm company, perhaps they should have an investigative arm to inspect their own clients alarms and false alarms. What do you think private security companies are for? The police are not a free investigative service for a pay-per-use alarm companies. Considering the private alarm industry nets somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 BILLION, perhaps they should offer some sort of service besides calling for help. Be pissed at your alarm company for giving you a raw deal, not the cops for not wanting to be your private home inspector.

Studies have also show that residential alarm companies mostly provide a false sense of security and very little else.

[Dietrich_R1]

Last week... Tuesday morning. Stage is set w/ a delivery man who opened the door. The latch wasn't set so he was able to open the door & hence set off the alarm....

7:00am Cops show Up... He walks toward the officers saying I accidently set off the alarm. They put their hand up & grab their guns saying stop.

7:05am I show up & he's standing outside explaining the story while I'm chuckling.

7:10 Our 100lb wet manager walks out another door saying they pulled a gun after she was in the office & after they saw her. Of course she's from India & could be mistaken to be a Mexican.

7:15am The cop gives a lecture to us about latches! I shoook my head & walked inside. He didn't like that, but I continued so he knew he was a complete IDIOT!!

Summary.. Everyone is coming to work. A guy who admits he did it & has a legitimate story explains to them he set off the alarm. They pull a gun on someone. Then they lecture. Yes, Fat Pigs What yah gonna do, Fat Pigs What yah gonna do..........

I truly believe if it wasn't for this mentality people wouldn't hate cops. The status quo is the typical cop is a person who never had power & it shows they never should.

I got pulled over going 145mph +. I told the judge the cop was the most professional officer I had run into.... He was professional & did his job well. After a phone call from the judge to the officer, of course I paid a fine of a whopping $200.00, everything was dropped. Come to find out, he even wrote a ticket to his own MOM!! HA HA!!!

[Foolds]

False alarm fee's have become very common across most juristictions because people were to lazy to fix there alarms to they would quit going off. So they charge a $100 fee and boom problem solved. You want an alarm you take the risk of the $100 fee. All of my alarm systems are contact first dispatch second. If i get 3 different sensors going off such as a door, and two motions I dispatch the police. If its just one motion then I let it go and get there asap.

[ChrisCBX]

When the officer handed me the ticket for $75 he told me...........

"at least this proves your system works and we really do respond".:)

[Toner]

Like I said either glass needs to be broken or the someone needs to be pulling on a window or door.

Is your broken glass detector audible or attached to the glass? My systems use the audible type and we test them monthly by shaking my car keys in front of it. A dog's collar might produce a similar noise...:dunno:

[BeoBe]

that does sound like alot of crap for you to be charged for something like that.. take that letter to the chamber and see what you can get figured out.. see what you can find for douglas county laws and see if this is a legal issue etc..

Things have been getting pretty crazy lately but yea, i would also contact your alarm company and find out exactly how many time this sheriff dept has been contacted which resulted in false alarms..

You can also schedule a meeting with the sheriff himself or even over the phone and see if you can get to the bottom of this.. Because he is the current sheriff doesn't mean that he was the one that made this policy etc.. Maybe he hasn't been made aware etc.. Im just shooting in the dark but yea.. Maybe talking to him he might see what he can do etc.

Your alarm system is set in place for this reason in the first place, alarms go off without any broken entry, but i dont see how this is any fault of yours.. i mean if anything your alarm company should be sent out to inspect your system and see if they can find out why it was going off, whether it was faulty or if someone really was trying to break in...

[Scribbler]

but yea, i would also contact your alarm company and find out exactly how many time this sheriff dept has been contacted which resulted in false alarms..
Actually, I would do the reverse and talk to the Sheriff's dept and find out how often they respond to false alarms to that specific alarm company.

[BeoBe]

yea that would work to.. or even do both and ask the sheriff's dept how many calls they have had to your house and compare between them and the alarm company.. If they only have the record of the 1 then i would really go to the sheriff and ask why such a charge after 1 offense..

Maybe he will at least setup a pattern type deal for it, like 5 false alarms is 25 dollar charge and up and up... would be an idea worth bringing up at least.. Like i said usually its best to voice your opinion and give thoughts towards fixing something rather then complaining about something.. Rules/laws are always subject to change

Either way, GL

[whitebrad]

always found that particular catch-22 amusing...

the cops don't really want to do their job, but get in a tizzy when you "take the law into your own hands!"

well, which one is it?

[Matt]

Riverdog ... good move changing the alarm company to contact you.

A neighbor's house was broken in to early this year. Luckily the thieves had broken in to many houses and were eventually caught. Our neighbor got back most of their irreplaceable items (like family jewelry).

The incident prompted us to set up a neighborhood watch. We met with an officer and he talked about several things. One was the effectiveness of home alarm systems. He said a home burglar alarm rates at the bottom of the cop's priority list. They are almost always false alarms, so they don't usually respond to them. He said if something does happen AND your alarm goes off to call 911, 911 calls by people have a high priority.

[D Berns R6]

What alarm company are you using?!?

[~Barn~]

That's a sucky story to hear, but it doesn't really sound surprising. I too, like what you're doing by having them contact you, rather than than the bakery...er.... the police station.

At least that way (assuming you have good relationships with them), you can get on the horn ASAP with your neighbors, and tell them what is going on. If they can do a little quick-recon on your behalf, then the call can be made not only by you, but also by them, with some sound justification.

Either way man, I hope you get the resolution you're looking for.

[DavidofColorado]

Contact your mayor's office. They will do cart wheels up the Sheriff's Hershey highway if they think it will reflect badly on them.

I find that messing with the little men with a little power are the worse to argue with. But try them first but don't expect any compromise. Then go to their bosses.

[Riverdog]

Well some of you may disagree with my point here and some agree. I made the change to my policy so they will now contact me. This policy was started in March of 2008 after I had already signed up for the alarm service. It was a new policy put in place by Sheriff David Weaver. I also wrote a letter/email to sheriff David Weaver stating that they would no longer be contacted to go to my residence and that I would handle it myself. As far as a false sense of security; I disagree as thieves do not like to hang out in homes with loud alarms going off. It sent them running when they broke into my garage. Anyways it is what it is; I just think it is crap!!!

[Riverdog]

APX


What alarm company are you using?!?

[Riverdog]

I don't think that is the case; if it were the thing would be going off everyday. We have a group of kids in the neighbor hood who have been causing trouble and I am pretty sure they were messing with something. The bad part is that if the alarm does go off the dog is trapped in the house with a blaring alarm.


Is your broken glass detector audible or attached to the glass? My systems use the audible type and we test them monthly by shaking my car keys in front of it. A dog's collar might produce a similar noise...:dunno:

[D Berns R6]

FWIW, Douglas County told Target (c470 and university) the same damn thing about the $100 fine....so it's definitely not just you. We have ADT and have had no issues.