Burglar Alarm Owners Must Register with the Town

First Selectman Steve Vavrek reminds residents that the new alarm ordinance will be enforced on April 1. To avoid a $100 fine, those who own an alarm system should register it with the Monroe Police Department.

Registration forms can be downloaded from the town website home page. Once completed, forms must be submitted to the police department, 7 Fan Hill Road.

The Town Council approved the ordinance in December to address the problem of officers' time being spent responding to a high number of false alarms.

Chief John Salvatore says police officers respond to about 1,280 false alarms a year, with two officers sent to each incident, using up approximately 22 minutes of time a piece for a total of 44 minutes away from their beats.

Salvatore asked the Town Council to pass a false alarm ordinance to cut down the number of false alarms by fining the chronic offenders.

"I would like to see a double digit percentage reduction within the first year," Salvatore said of the number of false alarms.

The ordinance requires all burglar alarm owners to register their systems with the police department and to renew it every year, so police have updated information in the event officers ever have to call the homeowner or the alarm company.

A number of residents complained about a proposed $25 one-time registration fee to pay for the record keeping, so the Town Council's Legislative & Administrative Committee eliminated it.

Though there is no registration fee, those who do not register and renew risk being slapped with a $100 fine for failing to do so.

The fine structure is based on the number of offenses in the same year.

The first offense warrants a verbal warning, the second a $50 fine; the third, fourth and fifth false alarm a $75 fine; and the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth offense will result in a $100 fine. A tenth offense is a $250 fine.

The ordinance may be read in its entirety by visiting the Monroe Police Department's website and clicking on forms. A registration form may also be found there.

Pdf files for both the ordinance and a registration form may also be found right here by clicking on the photo that goes with this article, then clicking on pdfs.