Public safety agencies in Springfield Township are tired of responding to multiple false alarms at businesses and some residences.
The township board on March 10 passed first reading of an ordinance which would allow the township to bill offenders for the actual cost of the emergency response under the township’s cost recovery ordinance.
The ordinance was requested by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department, which reported ‘excessive alarms? in several locations.
On Feb. 21, Supervisor Collin Walls sent a letter to addresses which the sheriff’s office documented to have four or more false alarms during the first 11 months of 2004, warning them of the impending ordinance.
Walls told the board on March 10 of two replies to that letter. One was from a homeowner with a ‘complicated situation? (which Walls said would be covered under a proposed appeal process) and another from a business with a similar situation.
Those with the most false alarms did not respond, Walls said.
Under terms of the ordinance, scheduled for second reading on April 10, homes and businesses would be allowed three false alarms a year before a fine is imposed.
The fines, to be assessed in accordance with the current civil infraction fee schedule, would be assessed to both burglar and fire alarms, although the Springfield Township Fire Department reported no locations with more than three false alarms during 2004.