Homeowners with unpermitted alarm systems may find themselves in school soon to reeducate themselves on how to be responsible for their protection systems.
The City Council passed an ordinance 18 months ago that requires a $40 permit for every alarm system with a $25 renewal fee each year. The city started to enforce this ordinance this summer.
A letter from Gail Sumpter, the city’s community services specialist in charge of enforcing the alarm system permit ordinance, requesting compliance with the ordinance was mailed out over the summer. The letter explained that a major reason for passing Malibu’s Ordinance No. 186, which governs alarm permits, was to “reduce the number of false alarms by requiring corrective action and penalizing only those persons whose alarms malfunction on a repeated basis.”
And, said Sumpter, addresses with false alarms were the very targets of the letters that she disseminated, although she said she is not sure how many letters actually got mailed.
Although the new system will allow the city to recoup money spent for false alarm responses–1,000 permits generate $40,000–Sumpter said her motivation is “not to collect fines.”
Instead, she said, what she really wants to do is to teach people.
“I want to educate people … on how they can be responsible with their alarm systems,” she said.
“We all feel better with our alarm systems, but some people have been careless and there needs to be some kind of consequence … a motivator.”
The motivator Sumpter said she is considering is “a recurrent class for people who have been irresponsible with their alarm systems.
“Students would learn what common false alarms are, how to create a password for employees or household residents so that an alarm can get canceled if it goes off by mistake, and how to shut off the system if there is an equipment problem.”
Sumpter says while she has information on who has permits, she does not have information on those with alarm systems without permits.
Additionally, she said the city doesn’t have the manpower to check door to door on who has an alarm system and who doesn’t. The only way that an unpermitted system can be found out is if a false alarm is initiated and sheriff’s deputies visit the property.
Sumpter said as many as 1,500 addresses in total “could have” been notified.
(Through August, the Sheriff’s Dept. responded to 952 false alarms, she said, explaining additional names could have gotten mixed into her distribution list.)
The ordinance applies to alarms that evoke a police or fire response and makes sounds heard outside the premises.
However, Sumpter is confident that she has a way of targeting repeat violators. She can sort false alarms by name or address.
“They are right here in my little database,” she said.
When the County Sheriff’s Dept. sends her the monthly list of false alarms, she compares it with the addresses to which she already has mailed compliance letters.
While the first two false alarms per year are without penalty, the ordinance sets a $175 fee for the third offense and a $59 fee for additional false alarms; after that, the cost of one sheriff’s car to respond to the call.
Will everyone get a permit?
“I doubt it,” said Sumpter.
So far, since the mailing process began, she has processed a total of 143 business and residential permits based on the applications she has received. But, she adds, “Remember, this is just the beginning phase of the implementation.”
While Sumpter said she does not have any information on the number of businesses or residences in Malibu, the Malibu Chamber of Commerce said there are about 700 city-based businesses, and the U.S. Census Bureau lists 4,707 households.
Meanwhile, according to Ordinance 186, the unlikely consequence of having an alarm system without a permit is $100 for the first violation, increasing to $250 for the third offense within 12 months.