Opportunities for Police Cost Savings Without Sacrificing Service Quality: Reducing False Alarms

Philip S. Schaenman, Aaron Horvath, Harry P. Hatry

In many cities, false alarms from home and business security systems number in the tens of thousands each year, waste millions of dollars of officer time, and detract from attention to reducing crimes. Options are presented on ways to substantially reduce the effects of such false alarms and the police responses to them. We analyzed experiences of Montgomery County, MD; Seattle, WA; and Salt Lake City, UT, which reduced false alarms by 66-90% and saved 10-30 police officer-years annually.

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