LAPD-Council Unanimous in Call for Withdrawal of Verified Response
Source: Jerry Lenander, CAA

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously 11-0 on Tuesday, April 22 to accept the report of the Burglar Alarm Task Force. The City Council strongly urged the Los Angeles Police Commission to withdraw the LAPD verified response policy and implement the alarm response recommendations of the Task Force.

"What I love is the honesty," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn. "The Task Force brought honesty and integrity to this issue and sorted through the myths, distortions and statistics to develop common sense and reasonable recommendations."  Hahn and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel successfully moved to assert jurisdiction over the Police Commission on January 14, 2003 which resulted in the City Council establishing a 25-member community task force.

"I want to thank the alarm industry for coming to the table with the community," said Hahn.  "This will only work if all of us stay at the table."  The Task Force recommended that ongoing reports be made to a similar group and to the Council to ensure that the LAPD continued to benefit from effective alarm management.

"We know now that we can make a decision with factual information, and one that does not negatively impact the community," said Greuel.  "The Task Force gave the people a voice, and we have received more valid information from them than we did from the Los Angeles Police Commission."  She particularly noted that about 20% of alarm owners cause nearly 100% of all false alarms, and that 16% of the properties had 10 or more false alarms in 2002.

One member of the Task Force said the data brought to them by an independent city agency clearly contradicts what the community had been told by the LAPD.

The Task Force Report, with the full and unanimous support of the Council, will now be sent to Rick Caruso, President of the Los Angeles Police Commission and the Council is requesting that the Commission place it on the agenda for review and action.  The Commission staff will prepare a report on the Task Force document, and it is expected to be before the Commission within two weeks.

The Los Angeles Police Commission is not required to take an action on the Task Force Report, but the Council and community expect they will do so within a few weeks.  The LAPD verified response policy is on hold until July 1, 2003, pending the review of the Commission.

Mayor James Hahn, who supported the commission during the initial debate, took a stronger stance Tuesday. The mayor now supports the Police Commission giving serious consideration to the recommendations.

Police Commission President Caruso said the commission will give the Task Force's recommendations a fair shake, and adopt them if they seem like a good idea. "I'm absolutely open," Caruso said to the LA Times. "If there are changes that make sense and that further the interest of the public, I will gladly endorse them." But, Caruso said he won't be strong-armed into any action that doesn't make sense to him. "I'm going to do what I feel is best," he said, according to the Times.

The Greater Los Angeles Security Alarm Association filed a lawsuit on March 26, 2003 seeking a preliminary injunction, but the court put the case on a fast track, setting trial for May 8.  The suit cites 12 issues which they believe merit a ruling by the court on local, state and constitutional issues.  The legal action was welcomed by the community as a necessary response to the Commission and the LAPD who had not been responsive to the community

Verified response, a recent phenomenon developed by the Salt Lake City Police Department in December, 2000, is still being considered by a handful of agencies around the United States.  The City of Los Angeles Task Force found that the policy has resulted in an increase in overall crime and burglaries, and resulted in a burglar rate nearly double that of Los Angeles.  It was recently rejected after long campaigns to implement it in New Britain, CT and Arlington, TX.  In Los Angeles, one insurance company notified the Task Force they were suspending writing theft insurance in the City based on the LAPD adoption of verified response. 

The Task Force found that less than 20 full time officers are utilized for alarm response from a police patrol force of 3,500 - 4,000, accounting for less than one half of one percent of all patrol resources.  The Task Force saw that the average time for an alarm response was approximately 10 minutes, not the one hour that the Commission and LAPD had based their policy on and is used almost uniformly by proponents of verified response.  They also found that alarm response has no impact on deployment capabilities and that no crimes are being allowed to occur or ignored because of alarm response.  The Task Force also found that the poorest neighborhoods in the City, on average, have the same percentage of alarm systems as those at the higher end of the economic scale.  Some of the sharpest opposition to the LAPD policy of verified response came from lower socioeconomic neighborhoods and redevelopment districts.