The district will be reviewing its false alarm bylaw after two businesses racked up hefty bills in circumstances beyond the businesses’ control.
Thirteen false alarms were recorded at a Glasgow Avenue business late last year, but police only attended four of those calls because the owner managed to cancel the rest. Faulty wiring was blamed. The alarm company made changes to its procedures and call centres which caused the problems.
The Mission business has since changed alarm companies and there have been no further alarm calls since Dec. 1.
A First Avenue restaurant accumulated a $1,790 bill for false alarms between Sept. 15 to Oct. 31 last year because a spider had built a web around the motion sensor, triggering the alarm.
The owner was out of the country when the alarms rang but investigated and dealt with the situation upon his return. Police records show no calls since.
Mission’s current false alarm bylaw levies a $50 fine for the first offense, $75 for the second and $150 for the third. All following false calls bring a $300 charge per incident.
Councillor Danny Plecas asked staff to look into when, if possible, an individual with numerous false alarms can revert back to the initial fine stage.
District staff will review the bylaw and report back to council.