Public Safety
False Alarm Reduction Achievement Award:
Honorable Mention
Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Alachua County, Florida
Nominated by: John Moorhouse Asst. Division Manager, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office
Rationale: The Alarm Reduction Unit was formed as a joint unit to maintain the newly created Alarm Ordinances for the City of Gainesville and Alachua County. Both law enforcement entities (Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and the Gainesville Police Department) wanted a slight variation from the model ordinance brought to us by the CARE, (Coordinated Alarm Reduction Effort) therefore two Ordinances were created.
Historically, both law enforcement agencies spent a great deal of time and resources responding to false alarms, our call load before the Ordinances was between 12 to 16 percent. Of these calls 99.7% were deemed as false alarms, thus only .03% of the 25,000 alarms we responded to yearly were from criminal activity.
Since inception, the unit has reduced alarms by 74% in the County and 69% in the City. They’ve been able to have such an impact upon the community, they started with aggressively calling all alarm users who’ve had a false alarm. This is done immediately, and the idea was to determine the cause of the false alarm and offer suggestions and or education for customers, this usually resolves most problems. Another extremely important component is timely invoicing; the unit is required to invoice all permits, false alarms and contractor issues immediately or the next business day for compliance. They also are required to process incoming mail the day it’s received. Monthly alarm reduction classes are held to educate users, this is a great opportunity for alarm contractors to speak and offer new technologies and suggestions to update existing equipment.
One of the unit’s goals for 2005 was to create and present a new False Fire Alarm Ordinance to both City/County Commissions, and have worked closely with both Fire Departments to combat their false alarm problems. Both ordinances will be created to combat the False Fire Alarms and should be up and running by August 2005.
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