In McKinney, Texas, if your clients' alarm systems aren't registered with the city, don't bother calling for response from the McKinney Police Department -- they won't be interested.
The city, located approximately 30 miles north of Dallas, recently issued a press release directed to alarm company owners and residents and business owners in the city who use security alarm systems. Starting on Oct. 1, the town's police department will not be responding to commercial or residential alarm systems unless they are registered with the city.
According to McKinney's Police Chief Doug Kowalski, the decision to require registration was partly driven by a high number of false alarm calls for the 115,000-resident city. Additionally, for the town's police department, the largest number of response calls were received for alarm systems. Thus by accruing revenue for alarm registration, says Kowalski, they can use those revenues to cover the costs of response.
The city is requiring annual registration, a process which costs $50 for residential systems and $100 for commercial systems. Although the city will not respond to monitoring center calls from non-permitted locations, the city has said it will continue to respond to any alert given by an eye-witness or person on the scene, whether or not the location has a permit on file.
