Truckee, Calif., Implements Alarm Ordinance

April 27, 2006
Ordinance has been on books for years; police decide to implement existing penalties

Truckee, Calif., is set to implement its alarm ordinance ... finally.

The Sierra Sun newspaper reported that the town will actually begin to implement the process of its alarm ordinance (which has been in the city's municipal code for years), which fines repeat false alarm offenders.

The ordinance to be enforced is as follows: The third false alarm in a 60-day period earns a penalty of $35. A fourth false alarm in a 90-day period is penalized $70. If five or more false alarms are reported from a single residence or business with 180 days, the police will not respond to alarm calls from that location for 180 days or until the department is notified that the alarm company was able to locate the source of the false alarms and that the problem has been fixed and alarm system users have been retrained.

The newspaper reported that the department has the right to use a non-response policy, but according to the police chief, that is not being considered, despite a 99.7 percent false alarm percentage.