RICHLAND, Wash. – The city of Richland is taking steps to reduce the number of false fire alarms that are wasting valuable time for first responders. The city council has approved an ordinance aimed at addressing this issue, which will take effect next week.
Between August 2023 and August 2024, the Richland Police Department responded to nearly 1,500 alarm calls. However, a staggering 98% of these turned out to be false alarms, leaving fewer than 50 legitimate calls.
A representative from the police department explained the impact, stating, “It does cause officers to respond to calls for service that are false. And it takes their time where they could be using that, for other duties.”
On average, each false alarm occupies two officers and wastes 20 minutes of their time, resulting in a loss of nearly 500 hours in one year. To combat this issue, the city will begin collecting annual licensing fees from companies operating alarms.
Local businesses that experience more than one false alarm in a 12-month period will face fines. If a location has six false alarms, police may stop responding to alarm calls from that site.
The city hopes this ordinance will encourage businesses to either train their staff or repair malfunctioning alarms. “We hope that this ordinance will allow us to, motivate people to either train the staff that’s using the alarms or repair alarms that are malfunctioning,” said Richland Police Chief Pilcher.
For more details on the upcoming changes, check out our previous coverage.
