9.15.23 – Fox 23
Owasso Police officers respond to multiple alarm calls at homes and businesses every day.
“Our response depends on what it comes in as,” said Owasso Police Lt. Nick Boatman. “Sometimes you get very specific, like glass break or shattering. Obviously, we take those very serious, because it’s detecting something.”
Boatman said most of the alarm calls they get are actually false alarms.
“So far this year, there’s only been seven genuine alarms, meaning somebody got into a home or a business, it was burglarized or robbed,” he said. “So you’re talking one percent of the 650 plus alarms calls that we’ve been to this year.”
Boatman said it’s a drain on the department’s resources. So in 2017, the City Council passed an ordinance requiring every home and business alarm within city limits to be annually registered.
“Most of the alarms calls that we go to are registered,” Boatman said. “For those that aren’t registered through the city, we do the best that we can trying to find a owner or someone who can speak for the business, but then they get a fee attached to our response.”
Owners of unregistered alarms get charged a fee every time officers respond to a false alarm.
Registered homes get two free false alarm calls, and registered businesses get three.
The registry seems to be working.
“Prior to that, false alarms were skyrocketing,” Boatman said. “They were far higher than they are now. When somebody gets a fee in the mail and they have to pay, or a business has to pay for repetitive false alarms, they end up getting those alarms fixed pretty quick.”
To register your home or business alarm, click here.