Alarmed BA resident gets no police response

If the burglar alarm at your home goes off, you expect the police to respond, right? Don't be too sure. <br><br>A Broken Arrow resident thought so too, but found out the Broken Arrow Police doesnâ€™t

Wednesday, June 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

If the burglar alarm at your home goes off, you expect the police to respond, right? Don't be too sure.

A Broken Arrow resident thought so too, but found out the Broken Arrow Police doesnâ€™t have to come out in many cases. She's confused, and News on Six consumer reporter Rick Wells answers some basic questions about how the system works.

Kim DeVore and her husband live in one of Broken Arrow's newer neighborhoods. They have a baby due in a few months. New house new baby coming, so they had a security system installed. The work was professionally done, and it works great. It went off Tuesday night. "The alarm went off, the alarm company called police, after that nothing happened." No police, no nothing, just lots of noise. Rick Wells, "You assumed if ADT called 'em they would come." Devore, "Oh sure."

An article last summer in the Broken Arrow Focus described a new alarm permit system. The article seemed to say, Police would respond to alarms even without a permit if the alarm company or a third party called, so she chose not to get a permit. Broken Arrow Police Lt. Kevin Marks says you get police only if you have a permit, or if someone calls with direct evidence a crime is being committed. Kim DeVore: "I asked the police department if my motion detectors going off is evidence of a crime they said not necessarily."

Lt Marks says the new rules have saved the police department lots of money and hundreds of man-hours, and he knows of no crimes they've missed by not responding to every alarm. If you get the $24 permit and the alarm company calls the dispatch center you'll get a police response. Rick Wells, "So now what are you gonna do?" DeVore, "Pay the fee."

Oh by the way, the bad guy in Tuesday night's false alarm, the family dog, Dakota set of the motion detector.

If you want more information on the Broken Arrow alarm ordinance you can visit Broken Arrow's website.