Politics & Government

Lilburn May Charge for False Alarms

False alarms cost the city $116,000 over a three-year period, Lilburn Police Chief Bruce Hedley said.

As the city's tax income dwindles, Lilburn is looking to pare expenses by charging a fee when security alarms go off more than once for no good reason.

False security alarms cost the city $116,000 over a three-year period, according to Lilburn Police Chief Bruce Hedley, and fewer than 1 percent of all alarms are true alarms, Hedley told the city council during its work session Monday night.

The larger the organization, the more police time it takes to ascertain that the alarm is not something to be alarmed about. It takes about one and 1/2 hours at Berkmar High School, for example, the police chief said. The average response time is 38 minutes.

Find out what's happening in Lilburn-Mountain Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Alarms make up about 10 percent of all call volume, Hedley said. In his three-year audit, 45 of 5,000 alarms were "true alarms," the police chief said.

The city is looking at neighboring ordinances in drafting one for Lilburn. In Gwinnett County, for example, the first alarm response is free, but the second false alarm will cost the owner $25, and the fee increases with each incident.

Find out what's happening in Lilburn-Mountain Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In other business at Monday night's meeting, the council certified the Nov. 8 elections, in which Johnny Crist was elected the next mayor of Lilburn. Thomas Wight was elected to council post 1, and Scott Batterton will keep his seat on post 2 of the council.

The council also voted to allow businesses that sell alcohol and that will be annexed Dec. 1 to continue with their county license to sell alcohol. They will be allowed to renew their licenses and won't have to apply anew. This applies to about nine businesses in the commercial district being annexed.

Events announced at the council meeting:

Nov. 29: SafetySmart Lilburn meets

Dec. 2: Christmas Tree Lighting

Dec. 3: Christmas Parade

Dec. 12: Bryson Park league association meeting: All sports leagues/teams interested in playing at the planned county park at Hood Road and Highway 29 are invited to attend.


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