Stumbled on a stat about false alarm fines in Chicago

Ngl, I was looking up permit requirements for a commercial job in Chicago last week and found out the city charges $500 for a third false alarm in a year. That blew my mind because I always thought it was just a warning or a small fee. Anyone else have customers freak out when you mention possible fines for nuisance alarms?

2 comments

2 Comments

umar592d ago

Three hundred dollars for a second false alarm in Chicago, and five hundred for the third. I get that it feels like a lot, but honestly the fines are there for a reason. Most alarm companies here have techs that can adjust sensitivity or check for faulty equipment real quick. If a customer is setting off three false alarms a year, that's not the city's fault, it's a system that needs tuning. I'd rather pay the service fee to fix the problem than keep getting fined and wasting police time. Plus, a lot of cities have these rules, not just Chicago.

dakota_patel981d ago

Man, exactly. I had the same problem with my old system, turned out a spider web was setting off the motion sensor every time the wind blew. Took the tech maybe 20 minutes to swap it out and I haven't had a false alarm since. People don't realize how much cheaper it is to just call your alarm company for a tune-up instead of fighting those fines.