Lessons Learned - Support from the private sector (users) is as important as strong support from of Law Enforcement or the Alarm Industry. When the Village of Itasca held a public forum to present the newly proposed alarm ordinance to the business community, there was some apprehension as to how the fine structure and restricted response would be received. However, as the meeting unfolded and the facts were presented, there was total agreement that chronic abusers should not receive Police response to their repeated alarms. By the time the final draft reached the Village Board the fine structure was changed from the Police proposal (1-3 free, 4-6 $50.00, 6-10 $100.00, 11 and over $200.00) to the strongest progressive fine structure of all of the participating jurisdictions, with fines as high as $750.00. A similar response occurred in the Village of Rolling Meadows. The business community in attendance felt that 10 false alarms were too many and that the revocation of an alarm permit should occur sooner than the 10th alarm. It was the business community of alarm users who decided that the cutoff should be made on the 7th false dispatch. It should be noted that the "business community" invited to the meeting were alarm users who had 20 or more false dispatches the previous year.

The majority of Law Enforcement in Illinois agrees that private Central Stations should do burglar alarm monitoring, not in Police Dispatch Centers. Although no department has yet made it an official policy, most all agree that burglar alarm signals should be removed from Police Department Alarm Boards. Every department which has its own alarm monitoring board is running a significantly higher false alarm factor for accounts monitored in the Police dispatch center versus those accounts monitored by a Central Station, because there is no verification or screening of these signals. Overall, commercial alarm systems tied into a Police Board have almost three times the false alarm factor of commercial accounts monitored by a Central Station.

Washington

Washington was the second state to enter the project. The coordinator John Wurner started work in July, 1997. His office was generously donated and located within WASPC (Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs).

Liaisons for the Washington Model States Program included:

• Chief Lockheed Reader, Puyallup PD, serving as the Public Safety Liaison
• Mike Miller, Washington BFAA., serving as the Alarm Industry Liaison
• John Wurner, serving as the False Alarm Coordinator for Washington