SJPD changing how they respond to alarms

San Jose Police are planning on changing how they respond to reports of audible alarms. From the SJPD web site:

In 2008, The San Jose Police Department conducted a study of false alarms in the City and found that over 98% of all alarm calls were indeed false alarms. The cost of these false alarms to the Department was $662,000. In 2010, the Department responded to 12,450 alarm calls throughout the City. While this represented approximately 6% of all calls for service, it was the second largest percentile category of all call types. Only two arrests resulted from these alarm calls and only 113 resulted in police reports being generated. It is clear that false alarm responses place a significant demand on police resources.

Consequently, the San Jose Police Department will no longer respond to alarms solely on the request of alarm monitoring companies.

There has been a request sent today to the mayor asking to delay this policy until it can be better understood. You will want to follow this issue especially if your home or business uses an alarm system.