Describing himself as the “bogeyman of the alarm industry”, Chief Insp John White said there were a large number of systems in the West Midlands, and increasing false alarms. “These false alarms are an increasing drain on our budget. If we were in business we’d go bankrupt”. He hit out at “inferior and faulty” alarm systems installed in Birmingham.
“For every false call there’s a waste of effort. We have declining forces and funds”, He said that in Birmingham City Centre May-August 1999 there were 631 activations “but only seven genuine”. Force-wide in April 2000 there were 3,219 calls “and only 372 genuine”.
In the face of these statistics he said it was “difficult to sustain the argument that we should send officers on so many wild goose chases”. The industry as a whole had “failed to embrace the concept of confirmation” and he defended West Midlands controversial response policy last summer when they announced they would not attend daytime alarms unless confirmed. “Some perceived we had driven a coach and horses through the 95 (ACPO) policy. The industry may believe we were pig headed but we implemented our policy and got a challenge … We did not consult, but the Chief Constable has a right to do what he likes” He said the “brief venture last year had saved us 50 per cent of calls”.
Under ACPO 2000 they had adopted the policy of three false calls (two plus a warning) prior to a cut off in response. “What we’re doing is what the national policy seeks to achieve”.
Summing up, the session Chairman, Tim Geddes, Chairman of the BSIA Systems Section said the West Midlands statistics did “seem to be in isolation. Clearly West Midlands is different from the rest of the country”.
Dep Chief Constable Tony Lake, Chairman of the ACPO Intruder Alarms Group at the time of the formation of the current policy, criticised the “significant minority who abuse the system or refuse to take responsibility for their system.”
Higher arrest rate will justify policy
On URNs he said: “It’s a special service and charges are not unreasonable … the charge in no way relates to response and it’s made to the user.” He added police expected to see a substantial reduction in false alarms. “We wish to see a shorter period between activation and attendance which would result in a higher arrest rate.” The higher arrest rate would justify the controversy surrounding ACPO 2000.
At the same session Colin Davey, Head of Asset Protection, Scottish and Southern Energy, said the amount of time police say they wasted answering false calls was overstated. “I don’t believe time is wasted at all. Police cars are undertaking calls while on patrol”. Answering a false call was not a total loss for police: “The reason is, they learn about the premises and gain a liaison with the public.” He added:”I don’t believe we are getting the service we deserve and I suspect this (ACPO 2000) will make it worse”.
