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News Release: City of Oxnard Alarm Ordinance and Alarm Permit Requirements (8/29/19)

OXNARD POLICE DEPARTMENT

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2019

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:

Denise Shadinger, Commander

denise.shadinger@oxnardpd.org  (805) 385-7619

City of Oxnard Alarm Ordinance and Alarm Permit Requirements

Oxnard, CA – Law enforcement responses to false alarms is a nationwide public safety concern, as their sheer number imposes a drain on resources. Some studies across the nation have estimated that about 98% of alarm calls received by communications centers are false alarms. In 2018, the Oxnard Police Department responded to 4,823 security alarm calls, and 99.3% of them were false alarms. False alarms are preventable and compete with legitimate calls for service.

The City of Oxnard’s revised alarm ordinance went into effect on February 7, 2019.  The newly revised ordinance adopts measures that are intended to reduce the number of police responses to false alarms, as well as promote alarm user responsibility.

Oxnard’s alarm ordinance introduced “enhanced call confirmation” (“ECC”) to the city as a prerequisite to alarm companies requesting a police response to one of its client locations.  ECC requires the alarm company to attempt to reach two (2) pre-designated contacts before requesting a police response. Exceptions to this practice can occur, such as when audio/video can immediately confirm that an intrusion has taken place.  Panic, duress, and robbery alarms, as well as locations designated by the Police Department, are exempt from ECC.

Regarding ECC, Oxnard Police Department Commander Denise Shadinger stated, “With this new call confirmation process, we need our local alarm users to contact their alarm company and provide them with accurate phone numbers to call in the event the alarm is activated. The alarm companies are required to contact the listed responsible persons before calling us.”

According to the National Monitoring Center, many agencies that have adopted ECC practices are reporting between a 60-70% decrease in false alarm responses. This reduction translates to increased officer availability to respond to other service demands.

Alarm users are required to maintain a valid security alarm permit.  On July 10, 2019, the Oxnard Police Department “went live” with its online alarm permit management system.  This system, through a third-party vendor, has a website that allows Oxnard’s alarm users to conveniently register for their security alarm permits.  The link is: https://www.crywolfservices.com/oxnardca/

Alarm users who do not have a valid permit and have an alarm-generated police response to their site are subject to a fine.  Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites stated: “We’ve been messaging this to our community over the past several months. Six months after the ordinance went into effect, we are coming across residents and business owners who still do not have a valid permit, and in some cases, never obtained one.  We would prefer that our local alarm users go and get their permit, so they are not penalized.”

Benites added: “Our main goal is to reduce the number of false alarm calls so that our officers can be available for real emergencies.  False alarm responses can be prevented by alarm users being responsible for their systems.”

Alarm users who generate two or more police responses to their alarm site during a given twelve-month period will be subject to a $145 penalty, per response.  Oxnard Alarm Administrator, Lynnette Raya, stated, “We implemented this penalty to address those locations that cause an excessive number of responses. We literally have some locations that generate several of them each year, if not each month.  We have been reaching out to those locations in an effort to have them address the issue, but in some cases, the alarms continue.”

For more information on Oxnard’s alarm ordinance and false alarm reduction effort, contact your alarm monitoring service, or visit: https://sites.google.com/oxnardpd.org/alarminfo/security-alarms-home 

Oxnard’s Alarm Ordinance, Section 11-63 (Q) defines a false alarm as:

“An alarm to which responding personnel, having investigated the alarm site, find no evidence of a situation requiring a response by such personnel, or, except for an alarm based on fire or medical emergency, find that the alarm site contains one or more unsecured exterior doors or windows.  A false alarm includes an alarm caused by a power outage but does not include an alarm caused by a force majeure or an extraordinary condition not reasonably within the control of the alarm business or alarm user. False alarms include situations involving an authorized person or persons at the alarm location who do not use the proper alarm code.”

Examples of false alarm events:

  • Malfunctioning alarm systems

  • Owner, visitor, real estate agents, cleaning crews or other employee error in disarming the alarm system

  • Doors or windows left open or ajar

  • Animals locked inside and moving about the premises

  • Mail being dropped through a door mail-drop slot

  • Power outages coupled with improper battery back-up system

  • Telephone line problems

  • An overly-sensitive system that activates when persons rattle a door or window

  • Drapes or balloons blowing in the breeze

  • Improperly secured doors or windows have blown open by the wind

An “excessive” alarm location is defined in the Ordinance Section 11-63(P) as “The occurrence of two (2) or more false alarms, generated by an alarm user’s alarm system, within a twelve (12) month period.”

When a location is deemed to have excessive false alarms, the alarm user will be fined $145 for each additional response within a twelve-month period.

Those locations that demonstrate over five false alarm responses during a twelve-month period may be subject to an alarm permit suspension or revocation.  A suspension or revocation will result in fines up to $290 per response. It may even result in being placed on a “do not respond” status until the alarm user pays the fines, reinstates their permit, and obtains proof from their alarm company that the alarm was inspected and was found to be in good working order.