Dallas alarm permits and false alarm fees: what homeowners and businesses should know

Yes, if you are inside city limits

If your home or business is inside the City of Dallas and your security alarm is audible or monitored to provide police response, the city requires an alarm permit. According to the city's alarm permit page, the annual fee is $50 for a residence and $100 for a business, each permitted site gets three free false burglar alarms in a twelve-month period, and fees apply to false alarms after that. Registration and payment are handled online through the city's permit website, dallasalarmpermit.com.

We at Foresight Security install and monitor systems for homes and small businesses across the area, and the permit is one of the most common things new customers have never heard of. Fee amounts can change, so check the city's current schedule before you pay. What follows is how the system works and, more usefully, how to make sure your alarm never costs you a false alarm fee.

Check which city you are actually in

A Dallas mailing address does not always mean the City of Dallas. Highland Park and University Park, for example, are separate towns whose addresses still read Dallas, and many suburbs around them run their own alarm programs with their own rules and fees. Your property tax statement or your water bill will tell you which city you live in.

If you are outside the city, call your police department's non-emergency line or check its website. The FTC's advice on buying a home security system includes exactly this step: ask whether your police and fire departments require you to register the system and whether they charge for responding to false alarms.

How the city counts and charges false alarms

A false alarm is a dispatch where no emergency existed: someone forgot to disarm, a door was not latched, a pet set off a motion detector. Under the city's schedule, the first three false burglar alarms in a twelve-month period are free for a permitted site, and the fees increase after that. Panic and hold-up alarms are treated separately and more strictly. The city lists each false residential panic alarm at $100, and false business panic alarms start at $100 and rise to $400 each from the fourth onward.

The point is not the money as much as the pattern. Repeated false alarms tie up police time, frustrate neighbors and train everyone in the house to ignore the siren. A system that cries wolf gets disarmed, and a disarmed system protects nothing.

• Annual permit: $50 for a residence, $100 for a business, per the city
• Three free false burglar alarms per twelve months for a permitted site
• Fees on false burglar alarms after the third, increasing with the count
• Panic and hold-up false alarms charged from the first one
• Register and pay through the city's permit website

Where false alarms really come from

In my experience, very few false alarms are caused by broken equipment. Most come from people and from small setup issues that are easy to fix once you know about them. A new cleaner who was never given a code. A teenager who enters the code too slowly. A guest who opens the back door before anyone disarms. A dog that climbs on the couch in a room with a motion detector set for an empty house.

Then there are the physical causes: a door that does not quite latch and drifts open with the air conditioning, a balloon or hanging decoration that floats past a motion sensor, a weak sensor battery, a contractor who opens a window while the system is armed. Each of these can be prevented.

Seasonal changes play a part as well. Holiday decorations, house guests who do not know the routine, and contractors working on the house in spring and fall all show up as false alarms if nobody thinks about the system ahead of time.

• People entering without a code or entering it too slowly
• Pets in rooms covered by motion detectors
• Doors and windows that do not fully latch
• Moving objects near motion sensors
• Weak batteries and aging sensors
• Contractors, cleaners and guests who were not told how the system works

Habits that keep your false alarm count at zero

Give every regular person in the house or business their own code, and walk them through arming, disarming and canceling an accidental alarm, including the passcode they give the monitoring operator. Most false alarms are stopped right there: the person enters their code, the operator calls or speaks through the keypad, the passcode is given, and no one is dispatched.

Use a mode for nights at home so motion detectors are off while you sleep. Tell the installer about pets so the motion coverage can be designed around them. Close and latch doors before arming. Before anyone works on the system or near a sensor, call the monitoring company to put the account on test. And keep your contact list current so the operator can reach someone who can confirm a mistake. Our guide to what happens when a monitored alarm goes off explains each step an operator takes.

Testing and service without a dispatch

A surprising number of false alarms happen when someone is trying to do the right thing: testing a smoke detector, replacing a sensor battery, letting a painter work around a window, or checking that a new door sensor works. If the account is not on test, the central station sees a real alarm and treats it that way.

The rule is simple. Before any testing, maintenance or contractor work that might trip a sensor, call the monitoring company and ask them to put the account on test for a set period. Do the work. Then call back, confirm which signals they received, and make sure the account is taken off test. That last step matters as much as the first, because a system left on test is not being monitored.

• Call the monitoring company before testing or service
• Agree on how long the account stays on test
• Do the work, then confirm which signals arrived
• Make sure the account is back in normal monitoring

Equipment that causes trouble

If false alarms keep happening and you have ruled out people, look at the hardware. Sensors that report a door open when it is shut, motion detectors that trip in an empty room, and systems that chirp about low batteries no matter what you do are signs of aging equipment. An older system may also have zones that were set up for a household that no longer lives there.

Keep a simple log when a false alarm happens: the date, the time, the zone and what was going on. After two or three entries, a pattern usually appears, such as the same back door every windy afternoon or the same motion detector whenever the heat kicks on, and that pattern points straight at the fix.

A service visit can usually find the cause. If the system is near the end of its life, our guide on when an old alarm system needs replacing helps you decide whether to repair or start fresh.

For businesses, build it into the routine

Businesses have more people, more doors and more turnover, so they have more chances for a false alarm. Put arming and disarming in the opening and closing checklist. Give each employee an individual code and remove codes the day someone leaves. Train anyone with access to a panic button on when to use it, since false panic alarms are charged from the first one.

Open and close alerts help here, too. When you can see from your phone that the store was armed at closing and disarmed at opening by the right person, you catch problems before they turn into a false alarm at 2 a.m.

Auto-arming on a schedule is useful, but pair it with clear rules for employees who stay late or come in early, so the system does not arm on someone still in the building. A short conversation at each new hire's first shift prevents most of these.

Moving in, moving out, or changing companies

If you buy a house that came with an alarm, do not assume the previous owner's permit covers you. Contact the city's permit office and register in your own name for your address. If you are selling or moving, let the permit office know. If you are switching alarm companies, your permit stays your responsibility; the company changes, but the city still needs a valid permit for the site.

Alarm companies have their own obligations. According to a 2017 city announcement, businesses that monitor, service or install alarms in the city must register as alarm providers. If you are comparing companies, our list of questions to ask before signing with an alarm company covers licensing and how they handle local requirements.

Getting it set up right from day one

When we install a system, we design the zones around how you actually live, set up a mode for nights at home, plan motion coverage around pets, give every person their own code and walk everyone through canceling an accidental alarm. We also remind you to take care of your city's permit before the system goes live.

Our licensed technicians install, test and train, monitoring runs around the clock, and when something starts acting up, you call the local company that installed it. If you want a system that protects the property without running up false alarm fees, call us and we will schedule a visit.

Questions people ask me