Lafayette City Police want to remind residents and business owners in the city of the city’s alarm ordinance.
The ordinance has been in effect since the 1990s, but the department just wants to remind people that it’s required that they purchase a permit from the city to have an alarm.
“Any business or residence with an alarm system has to register with the city, it’s a one-time cost of $20 to do so,” said Cpl. Karl Ratcliff, public information officer. “This allows us to keep track of false alarms, because we’re notified every time an alarm system is activated. This also lets us know how many active systems we have in the city.”
Since officers are automatically dispatched when an alarm goes off, false alarms take officers from other calls, he said.
“Sometimes the business owner or home owner don’t even know about it,” Ratcliff said of false alarms. “And sometimes, it happens multiple times in a night. The alarms have to be registered so we can get in touch with them. This helps keep our officers on the road to respond to other calls, not these false alarms.”
Lafayette Police have responded to more than 4800 false alarms so far this year, he said.
The Ordinance provides each user of an alarm system, 3 free false alarm responses each year, the Lafayette City-Parish website states.
For false alarms 4 through 9, you pay a $25 fine. For each alarm 10 through 20, there’s a $50 fine. And after 20 false alarms from a single system, the department may no longer respond, the website states.
If you get your alarm system repaired within five days of the false alarm, you can show that receipt and your ticket can be reviewed to see if the fine will be waived, the website states.
To register your alarm, click here.
