Time to register alarms in Williams Lake rapidly coming...

From the City of Williams Lake:

The City of Williams Lake is reminding monitored alarm holders that alarms must be registered with the City before Sunday, October 30.

The fee is $15 for residential alarm systems and $20 for commercial and other alarm systems. Registration can be done in person at City Hall, 450 Mart Street. Alarm holders are asked to pick up a registration form from Development Services at City Hall and fill it out completely.

Required information includes: 

Name
Phone number
Address
Alarm company name
Type of alarm (intrusion, panic, silent, holdup)
Keyholder (who will respond when an alarm is triggered).

After October 30, an automatic $100 fee will be charged for the RCMP or Fire Department to respond to a non-registered alarm.

Fees for excessive false alarms start at $100 and will be applied on the third after three false alarm in a 365-day period. On the fourth and subsequent false alarm, the fee is increased to $150. It is important to note that emergency service providers will continue to respond to all alarms, regardless of how many false alarms have been reported at an address.

RCMP statistics for 2008 and 2009 show an average of 93 false alarms per month, totaling over 1,000 per year. Costs of responding to current false alarm totals are estimated at between $54,000 and $63,000, in addition to requiring a significant amount of time on the part of RCMP members. Costs associated with Williams Lake Fire Department responding to false alarms have been estimated at $89,700.00 per year, based on 78 false alarms per year.

“The intent of the registration, which was requested by the RCMP, is to encourage responsibility, and reduce the number of false alarms, and in the process save time and money spent by the Williams Lake RCMP and the Williams Lake Fire Department in responding to false alarms,” says Mayor Kerry Cook. “This is one way to help our emergency services better use their resources.”

For more information, please contact:

Debbie Wood
The City of Williams Lake
Ph: 250-392-1769
Email: dwood@williamslake.ca