False Fire and Burglar Alarms Have Significant Costs

When a burglar alarm or fire alarm sounds in a Tulsa or Oklahoma City business, the company’s alarm monitoring service quickly notifies the appropriate emergency personnel. With the Tulsa and OKC alarm monitoring service from MacNet, alarm signals are received by the central alarm monitoring station in just seconds. But what happens when these alarm signals are false alarms?

As with real alarm signals, firefighters or police officers are still sent out when they get the call from the burglar or fire alarm monitoring service, unless they are notified in time. In a recent article about how taxpayers are affected by false alarms, a sheriff’s department in Georgia noted that a deputy spends half an hour responding to each false alarm, and at that department one out of every ten 9-1-1 calls was a false alarm. Averaging that amount of time with what a deputy just starts out making will cost taxpayers around $97,000 dollars a year, the Sergeant noted.

In Tulsa, a couple of police officers are sent out when a Tulsa burglar alarm sounds. “Officers are trained to never let their guard down on an alarm call,” Fox23 News reported. “Since they are priority calls, two officers are sent which means time and money.” To combat the number of false alarms, the Tulsa Police Department will only dispatch officers to a home if the residents have registered their security system with the department. All security systems must be registered with the City of Tulsa.

“Police say if you have three false alarms in one year, your permit is suspended and your alarm company must inspect it to make sure it is working properly,” Fox23 added.

Oklahoma City also has an ordinance to fine those with “excessive” false alarms, considered more than three false alarms within a 365-day period.

So how can you prevent these costly false alarms?

First, if your Tulsa or OKC burglar alarm or fire alarm does go off improperly, it’s important to call your alarm monitoring company immediately.

To make sure the fire or burglar alarm is up-to-date and working properly, regular inspections and maintenance is vital and can subsequently reduce the number of false alarms. Updating an older alarm system can also help to prevent false alarms.

Train all employees on how to correctly operate and cancel an accidental alarm.

Mac Systems in Tulsa and OKC can make sure your fire alarm and security system are up-to-date and working properly so that you won’t have to pay for costly false alarms.