Fort Lauderdale PD Profile

COORDINATOR COMMENTS

Chief Mike Brasfield was the public safety liaison for the "Model States" project in Florida and one the IACP/SACOP representatives that helped initiate the entire "Model States" Project!

Working with the Alarm Unit Coordinator, Sgt Steve Medley, who also serves as the Model States Project Coordinator for Chief Brasfield, we discussed what could be done to reduce false dispatches without passing a modified ordinance.

  Sgt. Medley and I conducted a dealer meeting where we invited over 250 alarm companies to attend. Twenty-three companies were represented at the meeting. The dealer meeting keyed on reduction through working on the worst offenders first.

  Accompanying Sgt Medley we visited the worst of the worst, and additionally made contact with the servicing alarm companies. The accounts that we visited were those with over 35 false alarms in the first nine months of 1998. These accounts have since been monitored, all of which have considerably reduced the level of false dispatches. One account in particular is a large auto dealership that has reduced false dispatches from 100 per year to "0".

  Of interest was one alarm company that represented a large percentage of the false alarms in 1998. This company has not only cooperated but has assigned a service technician at Sgt Medley’s disposal to address any of their accounts that are having multiple false alarms.

  Through a combination of working the worst offenders and aggressively working with the alarm companies the Ft Lauderdale Police has been able to reflect a 8% reduction in false dispatches and a 12% increase in Service Fee collections in the last 9 months.

 The local school board monitors their own alarm systems, by working closely with them in a cooperative effort, they instituted a policy of not requesting police response until they have had three (3) sensor activation’s. This has lead to a 30% reduction in school properties’ false alarms. The school board is also in the process of installing video monitoring systems that will further reduce the number of false dispatches.

 The Ft Lauderdale Police Department is currently working with the City Attorney’s Office in preparing changes to the alarm ordinance. Although these proposed changes will not include a no response and disconnect policies, they do expect further reduction in the level of false dispatches by an aggressive policy of working with targeted accounts and with the alarm companies.