Okay, I feel better now, but this whole process is going to cost me an additional $36 a year. Just chalk it up to another tax that must be paid to live in the city. Anyhow, my alarm company sent me a letter explaining they will comply with the city's policy change with the proceedure below:
- 1) First attempt to contact the customer's premises by telephone to verify whether an alarm event is real.
- 2) In the event we are unable to contact someone at the customer's premises, a second verification call attempt is made to a designated person on the customer's Emergency Contact list to very the alarm event.
- 3) If we are still unable to contact anyone by phone, we will attempt [[??? - don't know why this would be an attempt, and not successful, but it's what they wrote) to notify the police department and will dispatch a guard to visually check the exterior of the premises from his or her vehicle to determine if an actual alarm event has occurred [[sounds like the thief will have to break in the front of the house, how will the guard be able to tell if the break-in occured in the back of the house?).
- 4) If the guard reports evidence of a criminal or other unauthorized intrusion, we will provide follow-up notification to the police department.
- 5) On your next bill, you will see an additional monthly charge of $3.00 for guard service, a charge unfortunately made necessary as a result of the change in the police department's alarm response policy.
This is workable and acceptable. I hope it saves the city money and the police are able to be more effective. Judging by the last few decades of Detroit's history, I doubt it, but whatever.