Swampscott residents must register alarm systems

SWAMPSCOTT – The police department responds to an alarming number of false alarms each year and officials hope the new alarm bylaw will help reduce the number of false alarms.At the 2009 Town Meeting, a new bylaw was passed that requires all businesses and homeowners to register their alarms with the police department. The new program is scheduled to get underway the first of the year.Police Capt. John Alex said the bylaw is intended to give the police department the ability to better manage the increasing number of alarm activations. He said the police will compile a database of alarm systems in town that will include the name of the alarm company and contact information for a person to notify if there is an emergency or alarm malfunction.Alex said the bylaw was necessary due to the sheer volume of false alarms. He said police responded to 1,009 alarms in fiscal year 2009 and 903 alarms in fiscal year 2010.?Of the total number of alarm calls we received 99 percent were false alarms,” Alex said. “There is also a more stringent policy for dealing with repeated false alarms, which will hopefully reduce the number of false alarm calls reported to the police department.”Police Chief Ronald Madigan said the new bylaw requires all alarms in town to be registered, installed correctly and properly maintained to minimize false alarms. The regulations also require alarms to have equipment that prevents false alarms in a power failure.Property owners will not be fined for the first two false alarms in each calendar year, but a $60 service fee would apply to each subsequent false alarm in that year for residential alarms and $80 for non-residential alarms. Alex added the penalty for a malicious false alarm would be $150 per activation.Police are in the process of sending out letters and registration forms to every address in town that an alarm call generated from in the last year. Anyone in town, who has an alarm and did not receive registration materials in the mail, should pick up a registration form at the police department or download one at www.swampscottpolice.com. There is an annual registration fee of $10 for a residential alarm and a $25 fee for commercial alarms.