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 False Alarm Programs As you may or may not be aware nearly all police departments throughout the Golden Horseshoe have implemented false alarm programs with respect to premises with burglar alarm systems. Most of these law enforcement agencies allow a certain number of false alarms from a premise per year and then impose a police response suspension. What you are probably not aware of, is the fact that a growing number of these law enforcement agencies are also implementing cost recovery programs to help cover the cost of responding to false alarm calls. A few of these false alarm/cost recovery programs are detailed below. Metropolitan Toronto Police False Alarm/Cost Recovery Program (East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, Toronto) Metro Toronto Police are charging $83.50 (plus $5.85 G.S.T.) for responding to a false alarm. The false alarm program works as follows. Your system is allowed four (4) false alarms per year, then a minimum 30-day police response suspension is imposed upon your premises. After the 30 days, Metro Police will allow you to appeal your suspension and if they feel that your appeal is valid, they will re-instate alarm response to your premises. If on the other hand, Metro Police do not feel that your appeal is valid, the suspension will stay in place for a one year period. For more information check out the False Alarm and Cost Recovery Program on the Toronto Police Communication Services page. York Regional Police False Alarm/Cost Recovery Program York Region has two options for registration: Registered, no fee -- or -- Priority-Registered, with a fee. As a priority-registered premise, you will receive a caution after 2 false alarms, and will be suspended if you generate 3 false alarms. As a registered, no-fee premise, the caution, and suspension occur after 1, and 2 false alarms, respectively. Should you choose not to register, York Regional Police will still respond, but will suspend your premise after only 1 false alarm. In each case, once you have been suspended, you are required to pay re-instatement fees in order to obtain police response again. York Regional Police invoice the monitoring station on a monthly basis. We invoice the customer, along with their monitoring invoice. The fees are as follows: Commercial Premise: 1st year $10.33/month, 2nd year $7.00/month Residential Premise: 1st year $4.50/month, 2nd year $3.25/month York recommends that you register with a fee, as response time is quicker, because they keep you in their system, as opposed to registering with no fee, where they must record all your information each time we have to dispatch. For all the details, please see the York Regional Police Alarm Program page. Peel Regional Police False Alarm/Cost Recovery Program Peel Regional Police have no cost recovery program in effect at this present time. Their false alarm program allows for two (2) false alarms within a one year period at which point police response suspension will be imposed. This suspension can be appealed (at the discretion of the Peel Regional Police Alarms Coordinator) by the alarm holder at any time after suspension is imposed. For more information check out the pdf file on the Peel Regional Police Alarm Policy page. You will need to have the Adobe's Acrobat Reader installed in order to view the page. Durham Regional Police False Alarm/Cost Recovery Program Durham Regional Police have imposed a similar program to York Regional Police with respect to cost recovery. They require that alarm holders in their area pay a yearly permit fee for police response. This fee must be paid to the monitoring station or alarm company, who then send a cheque to the police. These fees are $50.00 (plus $3.50 G.S.T.) for residential alarm holders and $100.00 (plus $7.00 G.S.T.) for commercial alarm holders. Their false alarm program allows you three (3) false alarms in a one year period and then a 30-day suspension is imposed. After four (4) false alarms, a 1-year suspension is imposed. In lieu of either suspension, a reinstatement fee of $150.00 (including G.S.T.) may be made to the Durham Regional Police. They further state that if police are called to respond to an alarm at a premise that has not paid for a response permit, or whose registration has expired, they will charge a fine of $150.00 (including G.S.T.), which must be paid within 15 days from the alarm response date to avoid a 1-year suspension. Halton Regional Police False Alarm/Cost Recovery Program Halton's False Alarm policy allows you four (4) false alarms against your premises and then response suspension is implemented. However, they require that all premises that have monitored burglary alarm systems register with them at a cost of $24.00 (plus $1.68 G.S.T.) for residential alarm holders and $48.00 (plus $3.36 G.S.T.) for commercial alarm holders. Halton will issue fines as follows for registered premises :
An appeal is allowed and if granted, the alarm holder's false alarm status is reduced to two at fault. If police are asked to respond to a false alarm at a suspended, or unregistered premise they will levy a fine of $50.00 (plus $3.50 G.S.T.) for residential alarm holders or $100.00 (plus $7.00 G.S.T.) for commercial alarm holders. Alternative to Police Response Should you feel that you would rather not have to register or deal with these false alarm programs, Vigilarm offers private guard response to your premises for as low as $35.00/response (plus G.S.T.). Vigilarm Reporting Systems Ltd. 2405 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Suite 204 Etobicoke, Ontario, M8V 1C6 Tel: (416) 255-9014 Fax: (416) 255-6121 site-map Keep an eye out for our new site -- coming in the new year 
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