District of North Vancouver is planning a progressive increase to the fees charged for false alarms in the municipality.
According to a staff report, the existing District and City Security Alarm Systems Bylaws are conflicting in their governance and fee structure, which makes it an operational challenge for the RCMP who attend security alarm call-outs in both municipalities.
DNV plans to update the Security Alarm Systems Bylaw to align it with the City of North Vancouver to help provide a consistent level of service. While there is no fees for the first false alarm, fees for subsequent fire alarms will star to go up with each infraction. The second false alarm will cost $150, while the third false alarm will cost $250, with the fourth and fifth costing $400 and $600.
The effective date for implementing this bylaw will be July 1. On average, the RCMP attends 1,300 false alarm call-outs per year throughout the District and the City. Typically two constables and an average service of one hour are required per attendance call. False alarm calls are generally triggered by faulty alarm systems.
Particular concerns to the RCMP are properties where they are in attendance after multiple false alarms. There is currently no fee for the first offense of a false alarm, occurring in a 12 month period, however each subsequent false alarm is presently charged at $130 per occurrence. A bylaw adoption by the District of North Vancouver council will change it to progressive increases at every subsequent violations.
