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FINING ALARM COMPANY AND SUBSCRIBER FOR FALSE ALARMS
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Ken:  re  Unintentional Motivation for SR/Subsidy Recovery and VR/Verified Response.
    A recent news article (August 14) quoted SIAC representative Jon Sargent in opposition to SR/Subsidy Recovery
    “…fining alarm companies could be unconstitutional based on a recent ruling in the Southern California city of Fontana…. The judge there said that you cannot fine an alarm company for false alarms that they did not cause through unlawful conduct. It violates the Constitution and due process.”
    This bullying tactic against SR does not work anymore, and has backfired for the alarm association, SIAC, because it highlights modern alarm industry evolution and interpretations.
the same ruling can apply to fines levied to the alarm site… for the same reasons it can be unlawful to fine alarm owners.

  • requests for unnecessary emergency  response to private alarms can be “false police reports” a misdemeanor by the perpetrator monitoring firm.
  • delivery of emergency police services (unnecessary alarm response) to a private interest group (alarm industry) can be considered “gifting of public funds”, which is unlawful in most states.
  • monitoring firms can be responsible for “fees” for special police services (alarm response) requested for private customers.

         We were surprised that SIAC used Fontana as an example for opposition to SR because the final Fontana court tested ordinance is a combination of SR and VR.
Lee Jones
Support Services Group
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RESPONSE
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   False alarm fines a common and I doubt unconstitutional, notwithstanding the ruling in CA.  There should of course be some established criteria for assessing the fine, more than no illegal activity was found.  Whether it's the end user or alarm company who deserves the fine may depend on who was actually responsible, which can be rather tricky and illusive.  If an alarm is installed in such a shoddy manner as to continuously false and the subscriber or alarm company doesn't have sufficient notice or time to deactivate the system before several false alarms are sent, then perhaps the alarm company should get the fine.  The methodily used by law enforcement to determine the cause of the alarm is usually insufficient to reach a relable conclusion, which is one reason the fine may not pass constitutional muster.  
   The Standard Form Agreements all provide that no matter who gets the fine the subscriber is required to indemnify the alarm company.  
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