The estimated 25,000 Oahu homeowners and businesses with security alarm systems would need to register with the Police Department and pay an annual fee, under a bill now before the City Council. Council considers requiring
owners to register alarmsBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comThe bill would also establish fines for property owners whose systems create false alarms more than twice a year.
The local alarm industry is raising questions about the bill.
The issue will be aired by the Council's Planning and Public Safety Committee at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The Police Department wants the measure approved as a means of reducing the more than 33,000 false alarms it responded to last year.
Council Public Safety Chairman John Henry Felix said the Police Department is suggesting $15 for initial registration and a $5 annual renewal fee in subsequent years, although the actual bill currently does not contain registration or fee amounts.
A $100 fee would be assessed on those not registered. A property owner would be hit with a $50 service charge when more than two false alarm calls are registered in a year.
An alarm system, under the bill, is defined as "any single device or assembly of equipment designed to signal the occurrence of an emergency."
The bill would not apply to fire alarms or alarms in motor vehicles.
Statistics show at least 60 percent of false alarms are caused by user error, according to police Capt. Debbie Tandal.
"The people input the wrong code or use the system improperly," Tandal said. "Or they'll have a motion detector and have Mylar balloons floating around, or they'll acquire a pet and forget to tell the alarm company to remedy the problem.
"People don't realize that when you get an alarm call, it's a high-priority call. It's not a regular parking violation, so police respond in an emergency manner."
Alarm company owners say they like the idea of a one-time registration fee, so long as it requires new purchasers to have the systems installed by licensed contractors.
"The problem is systems installed poorly by unlicensed contracts," said Robert Bean, owner of Alert Alarm of Hawaii and executive director of the Hawaii Burglar and Fire Alarm Association.
But Bean and others in the alarm industry oppose annual fees and fines on alarm owners, calling them unnecessary.
"It creates more legislation and more taxes and regulation," Bean said, adding that police have overstated the impact false alarms have had on their officers.
Bean said that through education, the industry reduced the amount of false alarms this year by 25 percent.
Of 6,946 reported burglaries on Oahu in 2000, 460 were solved. "So there's a very definite need for electronic security in homes and businesses because there just aren't enough police to provide that security."
Mary Paulson, president of Security One Inc., said the proposed fines are onerous.
"Out of 25,000 alarm owners on this island, it is a mere handful that cause the repeat false alarms," Paulson said.
"My concern is in casting a big net to capture a few offenders," she said. "I think there are more creative and less punitive ways of reducing false alarms through education."
Felix said the bill is important to deal with the large amount of false alarms, but added that he is looking into making some concessions to address issues raised by the alarm industry.
City & County of Honolulu
