False Alarm!

We hear the word "change" a lot now, and it's a word with both good and bad associations. In West Des Moines, we work hard to ensure that all change is positive - although that can be an elusive goal!

There are several small ways we try to encourage change in the City. Here is one small example. Let's call it a "motivational tool."

Over the years, the number of alarm calls for service has been a concern for our Police Department. An overwhelming majority of those calls turn out to be false alarms that unnecessarily consume city resources. A false alarm is any call from security, fire or other specialized electronic or mechanical alarms or alarm systems that is not triggered by an actual safety issue or event. There are bound to be a number of false alarm calls, of course--it would be impossible to eliminate them. To examine what the City could do, we simply got a small group of employees together under the umbrella of our quality program (which emphasizes continuous improvement) and considered options to reduce the number of false alarm calls. That group's recommendations came to fruition in 2002, when we enacted a False Alarm Ordinance. That year, the Police Department received 2,470 false alarm calls. In fact, 6.4% of ALL calls for service directed to the Police Department were false alarms.

Fortunately, the number of alarm calls has decreased consistently since 2002 thanks in large part to the ordinance. Among other things, the ordinance increased the penalty for false alarms, assured that businesses take responsibility for recurring false alarms in the same 24 hour period, required an alarm function that can deactivate a bad sensor or alarm zone, required alarm companies to be licensed with the city, and set up an appeals process for contesting false alarm violations.

The change over time is evident:

2002 - 2,370 alarm calls
2003 - 2,185 alarm calls
2004 - 1,800 alarm calls
2005 - 1,819 alarm calls
2006 - 1,683 alarm calls
2007 - 1,665 alarm calls
2008 - 1,457 alarm calls

Since the ordinance, the percentage of calls for services due to alarms has decreased to 3.0%. Alarm calls are at their lowest level since 2000, the earliest year from which we have data, and have decreased 41% since 2002. In 2008, the PD received 1,457 alarm calls for service, 72 of which were recorded by WestCom dispatch as "good" alarms needing officer follow-up. So while the majority of alarm calls (in 2008, 95%) are still false alarms, we have taken action to limit the resources spent on those calls, which frees officers up to respond to more urgent calls for service.