Council OKs Oahu home and business owners with security alarms will need to pay $15 for a registration fee by next spring, under a bill approved unanimously yesterday by the Honolulu City Council.
security alarm bill
Home and business owners would
need to register their systemsBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comThe measure, designed to regulate security systems and reduce police time devoted to false alarms, also requires alarm owners to pay an annual fee of $5 and a "service charge" of $50 for excessive alarms.
Alarm industry officials, however, raised concerns that the measure will hurt the average alarm owner while not targeting the few frequent offenders.
"It's going to be a big burden to the small-business person," said Mary Paulson of Security One Inc.
Police Capt. William Chur said it costs the city about $600,000 annually to respond to about 33,000 false alarms. In contrast, there are only about 600 valid alarm calls that police respond to each year, Chur said.
"We are hoping we can reduce the amount of false alarms significantly through this ordinance," he said.
The bill calls for a service charge to be slapped from the fourth false alarm in a 12-month period, although the fourth alarm can be "free" if the alarm user completes an alarm systems operation and maintenance education program sponsored by police.
The bill includes a 30-day grace period for newly installed alarms when false alarms would not be counted toward a service charge.
Failure to have the alarms registered will result in a $100 fine.
Assuming Mayor Jeremy Harris signs the bill, the program would begin no later than 120 days after that approval date.
Police officials estimated that will mean alarm owners will likely need to register their alarms by about May.
Police have not yet determined which section within the department will administer the program.
It will cost the city about $260,000 to operate the program, which will include about $165,000 for a supervisor, patrol officer and three civilian personnel.
The money will come from the registration fees, annual fees and service charges.
Paulson testified that while the city needs a false-alarm ordinance, the bill as written was flawed.
"Anybody who owns an alarm system is going to be involved in spending ... more money than they already do," she said. "And it's going to be a burden to the alarm companies because we're the ones who are going to have to answer all these questions (about the bill)."
The bill would require police to submit a report on the effectiveness of the program after it has been in place for a year.
City & County of Honolulu
