Scranton to begin enforcing false alarm ordinance
By SSN Staff
Updated Mon March 29, 2010
SCRANTON, Pa.--After more than a decade of spotty enforcement, the Police Department here is cracking down on businesses and other properties where officers respond to more than three false alarms during a 12-month period, according to a March 28 story in the Scranton Times Tribune.
Violators will be assessed $50 for the fourth false alarm, $100 for the fifth and $300 for each one after that, based on a graduated service fee schedule in an ordinance approved by city council in July 2009.
Under a new procedure that took effect March 23, an officer responding to an alarm will document the incident on a notification form. Each form will include information about what the officer found at the property, weather conditions and whether it is a false alarm—in other words one for which a fee can be levied.
The officer will leave one copy of the notification for the property owner and keep one for himself. A third will be submitted to a Police Department clerk who will be responsible for managing a false alarm database and billing the violators.
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