New rules considered for false alarms

CURRENT RULES (ADOPTED IN 1997)
• Initial site registration fee of $12 with no annual fees required.
• Companies must try to verify whether an activated alarm is false by contacting the alarm user by telephone before calling police.
• Alarm users are allowed two false alarms within a 12-month period. They're fined $25 for each of two subsequent false alarms in that year. After four false alarms within a year, police won't respond unless there's evidence of criminal activity. This rule can be lifted if the cause of the false-alarm problem is corrected.

UNDER CONSIDERATION BY THE POLICE DEPARTMENT
• Raise the site registration fee to an annual fee of $40 to $50.
• Raise false-alarm charges to $75 to $100 for the third false alarm and to $100 to $150 for the fourth in a year's time.
• Adopt a reinstatement fee and impose higher false-alarm charges for the fifth, sixth and seventh alarms during a 12-month period. A second reinstatement wouldn't be allowed.

POLICE BILLINGS
Here are the amounts billed by the Colorado Springs Police Department for responding to false burglar alarms. Each response over two per year is billed at $25 each.
2005: $50,050
2006: $51,425
2007: $50,950
2008: $54,000 (forecast)
SOURCE: City of Colorado Springs Budget Office