Arcadia Alarm Permit Fee

I was watching the City Council meeting on cable TV the other night (yeah, I know, I was bored and there's nothing else interesting to watch). One of the items discussed was a proposed fee for people who installed alarm in their homes and businesses. The proposal was a $40/year "Alarm Fee".... I guess we have to paid to make our homes safer. Wait! We do! We pay to get the alarm installed, we pay to have our alarm system monitored.... Now the city or the police department wants to get the hands in my wallet for more...gee, what's new?!

The main reason for the city to consider imposing a fee is more than 90% of the time police responded to false alarms. Each time costs the City $175.

Here's my questions, how many false alarms does the police respond to in an average day? According to the Police Chief, majority of the false alarms are caused by repeat offenders. REPEAT OFFENDERS, did you say? Do we have to pay our policy officers if there NO false alarms to respond to? Do alarms help the officers do their jobs? Can alarms be a crime deterrent?

It is obvious the police or the city knows who are repeat offenders. Why doesn't the city or PD charge them?! If they cause the problem, should they pay to fix it?! Why make everyone pay for the few who cause the problem? I believe alarms help police and they deter crime. Shouldn't we encourage home owners install properly installed and monitored alarms? Charging an annual fee will encourage no one.

This one really amazed me.... One of the councilmen said (to the Chief), "I know you are out sourcing the billing and administration of this....They (the vendor) take their cut and it doesn't cost the city a dime. We can do this..." I can't believe I voted for you!

Hey, Councilman, just because it's easy and doesn't cost the city to bill me and get my money, it doesn't mean you should to it! HANDS OFF MY WALLET!!!