The City of Nanaimo has updated old bylaws to push owners of properties that generate excessive numbers of security system false alarms, that tie up police and other emergency resources and delay responses to actual emergencies, to fix their systems.
At its Monday, Jan. 20, meeting, city council reviewed and voted on a new false alarm bylaw that will jack up the costs of responding to properties that generate more than three false alarms per year.
Since March 2023, Nanaimo RCMP detachment received 360 alarm calls from 34 property owners.
Of those, 28 were hold up alarms where police responded as a priority one call. The other calls were from properties that have incurred a minimum of six false alarms within a 12-month period, with many averaging nine to 20 false alarm calls.
One property generated 40 false alarms since March 2023.
“These responses require emergency responses, which create unnecessary delays and they drain the resources and divert attention from the legitimate demands,” said Karen Robertson, city deputy corporate officer.
The problem isn’t new. The city enacted a false alarm bylaw in 1994 when, Robertson said, the cost of responding to false alarms was, according to the RCMP policing contracting branch, equivalent to the cost of seven full-time officers “so something definitely needed to be put in place.”
The current bylaw allows any property owner to have up to three false alarms within a 12-month period at no charge.
“After the fourth and fifth alarm the property owner is charged $140,” Robertson said.
After the fifth false alarm the director of police services has authority to notify the property owner there will be no further responses, which the property owner can appeal through a "labour-intensive process" involving a hearing.
“Assuming the service still continues, that individual can be allowed a sixth or seventh false alarm and then the fee only goes to $200 and it is not until the seventh false alarm that the officer in charge has the authority to withdraw the alarm [response] service,” Robertson said.
The fees charged don’t cover the costs of responding to the false alarms and time spent tracking down the owner before the RCMP can leave the scene. In some cases no contact information available for the property, so a key holder can’t be called to come and secure the property.
Staff advised that under the old bylaws, there was little deterrent to property owners to address the issue.
Stiffer penalties for excessive security system false alarms proposed by city staff are enforced by a new false alarm bylaw, a fees and charges amendment bylaw and a bylaw notice of enforcement bylaw that, together, further limit the allowable number of false alarms in a 12-month period, raise and add fees for responding to false alarms and allow for police to discontinue responding to false alarm prone properties altogether.
The new false alarm bylaw makes it mandatory for the property owner to keep the RCMP informed of the names, addresses and phone numbers of the alarm monitoring agency or, at least, two people who can be contacted when alarms are triggered and send the property owner or occupier a notice advising that the RCMP will not respond to three or more false alarms originating from the one alarm system within any 12-month period.
The fees and charges amendment bylaw continues the policy of no fee for the first false alarm to the same property in a 12-month period, a fee of $150 for a second false alarm, and $500 for a third and subsequent false alarms to the same property within a 12-month period.
“It’s also proposed to include a standby fee, so if police officers are expected to stand by at a property waiting for somebody to come and respond, there’s a $300 fee associated with that,” Robertson said.
“It sounds like a huge waste of taxpayers’ dollars, so I’m all in favour and I’d like to move the recommendation from staff,” Coun. Paul Manly said.
City council approved the bylaws, with Coun. Tyler Brown absent, with three readings.
