The Sunnyvale City Council enacted an ordinance in 1995 in order to set forth the regulations governing the use of alarm systems and the administration of an alarm business within the City of Sunnyvale.  This ordinance also provides for fees to be charged for excessive false alarms.  Since 1995, this ordinance has been amended to provide for a tiered billing structure for frequent false alarms.  The intent of the original ordinance and the subsequent amendments was to reduce false alarm responses by Public Safety.

As an enhancement to the existing false alarm ordinance, the City of Sunnyvale has adopted a residential and commercial Alarm Permitting Program. This program will be managed through the Crime Prevention Unit within the Department of Public Safety.  It is anticipated that this program will further reduce the number of false alarms that Public Safety responds to during the year. 

Other local agencies have been better able to manage false alarm reductions by implementing a permitting program requiring all users to register their alarms with local jurisdictions. The City of Sunnyvale believes that implementing such a program may be helpful in further reducing false alarm responses by establishing owner accountability.  

Additionally, staff believes that through enhanced owner/occupant data collection, Public Safety staff will be able to develop closer relationships with alarm users in order to facilitate educational efforts with regards to false alarm reduction.  It is anticipated that these efforts will reduce the number of false alarm responses and will free officers to focus on higher priority issues.

Public Safety staff is working hard to implement this permitting system.  Annual alarm permit fees for residential customers will be $35 and fees for commercial customers will be $70.  Applications will be available beginning August 2007.