False Alarm?

Dallas becomes the largest metro area in the U.S. to adopt the 'verified response' to business burglar alarms, meaning that local police will not respond unless business security guards tell them to.

1 minute read

February 3, 2006, 5:00 AM PST

By David Gest

"Starting next Wednesday, February 1, you can break into any business in Dallas, trip up the alarm and the police won't rush to the scene. Thanks to a new law passed by the Dallas City Council, the city's finest will no longer respond to commercial burglar alarms, which will make Dallas the largest metropolitan area in the nation to adopt the so-called 'verified response' policy."

"The law, designed to combat a whopping 97 percent false-alarm rate, says that the alarm companies must use private security guards to verify that a nefarious burglar -- as opposed to, say, a clumsy cat or frisky squirrel -- tripped the alarm before police will respond."

Read the full story: Truly Alarming

Thursday, January 26, 2006 in The Dallas Observer

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