Crying wolf merits a fine

When it comes to emergency responses, there are so many false alarms that it's, well, alarming. According to Salt Lake City Police officials, the force stopped responding to tripped alarms in homes because 99 percent of them were false.

Salt Lake County doesn't want to treat alarms as unimportant, so they are making the false ones more important by charging homes and businesses $50 after the third false report and $100 after that.

It's a good idea.

All it would take is for one false alarm to be the direct cause of a death or monumental destruction somewhere else and the whole system would lose credibility. Other cities, such as West Jordan and South Jordan, already have a false alarm fine policy in place.

As one might suspect, the problem is not just local. False alarms are an issue in almost every community in the nation — so much so that an association has been formed, FARA (The False Alarm Reduction Association), to combat the problem. The group's Web site, www.faraonline.org, offers tips to businesses, churches, schools and homeowners for cutting down on the number of misfires.

The Web site's list of tips for businesses includes: Train people about using the alarm system, be especially wary during holidays (when most false alarms occur) and have your equipment updated.

Homeowners are cautioned to know how to cancel the alarm if the system is inadvertently activated, asked to notify their security providers if they plan to do any remodeling or installation work, and asked to make sure the police aren't being summoned when there is a power outage, low battery signal or loss of telephone connection.

Like good athletes, firemen and police officers have to prepare themselves both physically and mentally to take on the challenges of their jobs. False alarms are like penalties in a football game. It doesn't take long before the constant interruptions become frustrating and threaten to take the edge off readiness.

A good stiff fine should help eliminate a good many of the "false starts."