Should we expect our burglary rate to increase?

• No!  This has not occurred in the other jurisdictions where VR has been adopted.  Fontana should be no different.

• Considering that almost all of our alarms are false, there is no correlation between alarms and actual burglaries.

• The mere presence of an alarm can deter burglars.  Police Officers responding to the sound of an alarm after the alarm has been activated is not the deterrent.

• Officers having additional free time will be much more beneficial in reducing burglaries than responding to false alarms.  With this additional free time, officers can spend more time:

  • Making enforcement contacts with suspicious persons

  • Patrolling areas with higher rates of burglaries

  • Focusing on gang members, drug abusers, parolees and probationers who are more likely to commit such crimes

Will Fontana residents become crime victims in their own homes if you don't respond to burglar alarms?

• Burglar alarms are designed to protect property, not people.

• Manually activated alarms such as panic/duress alarms, robbery and medical aid alarms ARE designed to protect people.  We will continue to respond to these alarms and they will continue to be given a high priority.

I pay my taxes and your salaries.  I want my tax dollars being used so that officers will continue to respond to my alarm.

• The majority of homes in Fontana are not alarmed.

• The alarms we are responding to are ALMOST ALWAYS false.

• Automatic police response is a personal service to alarm owners that has become detrimental to the public at large.

• Owning and operating an alarm is a PRIVATE contract with a PRIVATE for-profit firm, for a PRIVATE service.

• City police officers are NOT paid to be security guards for alarm companies or alarm owners and this, unfortunately, is exactly what has occurred over the past several decades.