|
|
|
|
Toronto False Alarm and Cost Recovery Program It is the current policy of the Toronto Police Service to respond to requests from alarm monitoring stations to investigate alarmed premises where an alarm signal has been activated, under the following conditions:
Verification In Toronto, the alarm industry, and other stake holders, have worked with the police service to reduce the number of false dispatch requests being submitted. A verification process was developed in co-operation with the Canadian Alarm and Security Association (CANASA), The Underwriters Laboratory of Canada (ULC) and the Insurance Advisory Organization (IAO). The policy of the Toronto Police Service requires that all alarm signals, including Hold-up and Panic, be verified before a request to dispatch is forwarded to us from the monitoring station. A verified call will be dispatched to the first available unit at a very high priority level. A non-verified request will be processed at a much lower level which could result in a minimum delay of thirty (30) minutes before a dispatch is made. To ensure the safety of officers attending Hold-up and Panic alarms as well
as the people at the alarmed premises, the Toronto Police Service will not
accept a request to cancel any Hold-up or Panic alarm. Cost Recovery Initiative The Toronto Police Service's "Cost Recovery" Program was commenced to address the issues of reduced fiscal and human resource availability, and continued increase in demands for response to monitored alarms. The program allows the Service to charge a fee of $83.50 for alarm calls accepted by a police unit that are determined to be a false alarm. The User Fee Program commenced on September 26, 1996. The fees are invoiced monthly to the central monitoring station that had requested police response to the alarm call. The Chief of Police of the Service or his designate may discontinue responses to calls from an alarm business when payment of all or part of any fees and interest owing under this By-law is outstanding for a minimum of four (4) months from the date the invoice was issued. Alarm Response Policy The Toronto Police Service will respond to an intrusion alarm signal* provided the following is understood and agreed to.
Note: If little or no effort has been made to verify the alarm signal then we
will dispatch on a much lower priority. (This could result in a 30 minute or
longer delay in assigning a police unit to attend the call.) When a call is taken by our police operators a confidential Event Number will
be given to your operators for the exclusive use of the monitoring station when
calling back with additional information. Suspension Policy When a premises has had two (2) false alarms, Toronto Police will fax a caution notice to the monitoring station. It is then the responsibility of the appropriate alarm company to contact the customer and advise them of the false alarm. The alarm company is responsible for working with the customer to determine the cause of the false alarm, and what steps can be taken to prevent a re-occurrence. This may include re-training in the operation of their alarm system or upgrading or replacing their hardware. If the police service responds to four (4) false alarms within a twelve (12) month period, commencing on the date of the first false alarm, the police response service to the alarm system at that premises will be suspended for 365 days. When a premises enters the suspension mode a notice will be mailed to the
premises and an advisory notice will immediately be faxed to the monitoring
station advising them which premises will be going under suspension and the
effective date. It is the responsibility of the alarm company to notify their
customer to forewarn them of the impending suspension notice and establish
alternate response arrangements for them. Appeal Process The Toronto Police will, under certain circumstances, review an appeal against the suspension. This appeal process includes examination of the circumstances of the alarm activation, the subsequent steps taken by the customer, the alarm company and the monitoring station to prevent a repetition of the activation. If the premise is reinstated before the completion of the 365 day suspension period as a result of an appeal, further appeals will not be accepted if the premises once again goes under suspension within the twelve (12) month period commencing on the date of the appeal reinstatement. Because of the large number of premises having an alarm device and the high number of alarm companies with a customer base in Toronto, the police service will only administrate issues concerning alarmed premises through the respective central monitoring station. An alarm is classified as being false when police are dispatched to one where there exists no emergency or any evidence of criminal activity that the alarm system was installed to detect. It is strongly recommended that the alarm holder be encouraged to use 9-1-1 rather than using the alarm system when something suspicious is occurring. This provides them with direct access to the police who in turn can assist them in an appropriate manner as dictated by the circumstances. It could also prevent a false alarm call being dispatched. * For the purpose of this policy, an intrusion alarm includes any alarm
device used to detect criminal activity at a premises and includes any hold-up
and panic alarms as well as interior and exterior detection equipment. Contact Please direct any questions regarding the Toronto Police Alarm Cost Recovery Program to Staff Sergeant Mark Barkley #1470 at Toronto Police Service - Communications Services, 703 Don Mills Road, Toronto, ON M3C 3N3, Telephone: 416-808-8873, Fax: 416-808-8862, or via e-mail at Mark.Barkley@TorontoPolice.on.ca. It is believed that this information was accurate as of January 1, 2006. Please contact the police directly to confirm. |
|
Send mail to
info@northern911.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
