The Law Police Are Now Enforcing!

[iStorm]

I/m not sure how this will apply in some county's, but in staffordshire the police are taking a hard line on trouble Alarms, I have had a customer today that Alarm System developed a fault and the bell box continued to ring (apparently for 8 hours!!) After some complaints from neighbours about this persistant noise, the police called in an (Approved) company to disable the bell box and the customer recieved a bill for £180.00+Vat!! I know its the law, i was just woundering how many people new it excisted and how many un-serviced alarms there are out there? I spoke to my contact at the Station a CPO, and he said that nusance alarms in staffordshire where no longer going to be tollerated! What are your views?

[Jim]

My view is that no matter what the intent of your system, you are ultimately responsible for things not always under your control. I think it would be the same having a dog that barks incessantly or a faulty alarm. You are responsible for the proper functioning of your system and if it goes off non-stop then the neighbours can't be expected to have to accept it as part and parcel of living near you. Eight hours is a long time. The police have to respond to noisy alarms the same as noisy neighbours and I assume they are getting irritated at having to spend valuable time checking out false alarms.

Maybe what this person should have done is registered with the police or posted a phone number where someone capable of disarming or re-setting the system can be reached in case of the alarm going off and they would have called them first before the "approved" company. If there had been a break-in then after checking out the premises the police still would have had to silence the alarm if there was no way of reaching the responsible party.

Obviously this system had no notifying capability or the owner would have been notified as soon as it went off.

Let me give you a personal experience with what I consider counter-productive nuisance alarms. I worked at a large plant. There was a guy who had an alarm system on his car that when you merely walked past it (which was unavoidable) at a distance of half a metre it would order you in a very rude digital robotic manner "STEP AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE!" It ticked me off so much that I would kick the heck out of his tires each time it went off. I didn't really hurt the car but at times could make the alarm go off. Sorry, I couldn't help myself hehe.