It's officially okay now to burglarize homes in Detroit

[corktownyuppie]

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.

That solution sounds reasonable to me, too. This will DEFINITELY save the city more money. As for whether they use that savings to make the police more effective, I guess we will just have to see. You're a bit more skeptical than I, but that's neither here nor there...we'll find out soon enough.

Certainly, if 98% of alarms are false, then you've just cut the response time of DPD by 50x for actual burglaries. Makes me wonder why we waited so damned long to do it.

[innercitydoc]

My alarm company sent me a letter providing an example of how a very similar policy was enacted and later repealed. Attached were the following Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I35S1P06Cpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGCW1...eature=related

Only time will tell what happens but I don't feel good about it...

[Zacha341]

Bingo... You're to police in that context... indeed be armed, don't go empty handed...

...If an alarm company called me and asked me to verify whether my next door neighbor's house is being buglarized, I'm grabbing a gun and am mentally prepared to shoot if I have to in order to protect my life before I go walking all around their property to see if someone broke in. So if I'm basically doing the job of the police, why bother calling them at all?

[RickBeall]

Here is a thought. Have the police bill you $500 for any false alarms. They still come out. If 98% of all calls are false alarms, they can increase the number of police on duty with the extra income. And if some ones home is creating multiple false alarms, the home owner will feel encouraged to fix the problem.

[mwilbert]

Here is a thought. Have the police bill you $500 for any false alarms. They still come out. If 98% of all calls are false alarms, they can increase the number of police on duty with the extra income. And if some ones home is creating multiple false alarms, the home owner will feel encouraged to fix the problem.

The problem is getting the homeowner to pay the bill--apparently the city can't even get people to pay their income taxes. That is why I suggested billing the alarm company, and letting them try to get the money back from the subscriber. The police can sanction the relatively small number of alarm companies much more easily than they can the homeowner.

[RickBeall]

Hi mwilbert,
I had missed your idea. That seems like a good idea. Bill the alarm company. I like the idea of billing the people [[in one way or another) who are directly using the service.

[gazhekwe]

For our office building, when the alarm is tripped, the alarm company calls us first. They tell us the alarm was tripped and which one, entry, conference room, southeast corner office or whichever one it is. We get to decide, do they call police, or do we check it out first. If we opt for police and it's a false alarm, we pay a fine to the city. Most of the time it's a false alarm. Still, I don't want my hubby going over there to confront whatever it is in the middle of the night, so I'd rather pay the fine.

[corktownyuppie]

The problem is getting the homeowner to pay the bill--apparently the city can't even get people to pay their income taxes. That is why I suggested billing the alarm company, and letting them try to get the money back from the subscriber. The police can sanction the relatively small number of alarm companies much more easily than they can the homeowner.

I like this idea, too. I don't know what the monetary cost of sending a patroller + 2 cops to a false alarm, but figure 2 man-hours + gas = $150-200? So start the fine at $250 and increase it every single time? Could be a source of revenue for the city as well.

Are there any other municipalities that have tried this? Is there any data?

[GoGrixdale]

What is the downside to A-La-Cart [[or Opt-In) city services?

What’s a 15 Min response time for possible invasion worth? I’d be willing to pony $200 for each occurrence if false. If I had to drop $200 the first time I’d make pretty darn sure I didn’t have to write another check any time soon. In the off chance that there was another false alarm …then shame on me again but I’ll write the *#&$@ check. I'd even put the $200 up front. Unused? Apply it to my $4800 property taxes.

Thieves would have no clue as to who’s opted-in. No, it won’t stop them but the whole point is to get it to sink in that B&E is not easy.

As it stands now, with a little strategy, B&E in the city is almost foolproof.

If there could be a war on B&E or a B&E Czar or a tactical operation that paraded 20 B&E felons across the T.V. in one evening what message would that send?

Today, unless you catch and detain a thief yourself there are no repercussions for them. We [[us and them) know that there will be no follow up, no finger prints, no APB, no canvasing the neighborhood, no line up just for your flat screen and laptop.

The thieves we’re talking about are not professional second story men or cat burglars. Not even the tweaking crackheads of the 80’s and 90’s. It’s teenagers, the laid-off pocket crack sellers and the crack babies now all grown up. They know it’s safer, and possibly more profitable than selling dope at the trap-house. Drug dealing is not the economic powerhouse of the hood that it once was.

It's as if I see it coming. I know for sure that if I lay a kid out in the process of protecting my STUFF it will be one of the worst days of my life.

[GoGrixdale]

• 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 chain of events is still 30-45 minutes [[easy) before police response. Run through your house for 5 minutes and touch every thing worth more than $50 and smaller than a bread box.

LOL ..."unfortunately" is the kicker