By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-627464.mp3
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter: The initial policy grew out of crime statistics. 98 percent of burglar alarms are false. False alarms steal police off the streets, where they could handle higher priority crimes. In the nation's biggest city with the consistently worst crime rate, that argument won out nearly a year and half ago. So businesses had to verify an actual crime before police would show. But the council and mayor have changed. And business owners, like Harry DeMarco, conveyed their stories to new ears on the council.
Harry DeMarco: Verified Response is a total failure. I am a first respondent to my business because it's my business. My only request is to please let my family, my children, take my business after I'm gone, not the criminal. The criminal has the upper hand I have the lower hand. Please help the small business man. That's me.
Zeeble: DeMarco's comments were repeated over and over. Of the 25 speakers, only 4 liked Verified Response. Most business owners feared for their own safety in verifying alarms. Shelly Musselman runs a business with her husband, & they're often out of town.
Shelly Musselman Sherry Musselman, co-owner Forty Five Ten business: Most people who work for me are women, single mothers, they have to get up & come down to verify and its dangerous for those women at 4:00, 4:30 a.m. Please help us.
Zeeble: Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert's argument hasn't changed. He dislikes Verified Response, saying it scares off business owners and those thinking about relocating here. And fewer businesses result in a lower tax base. But, he said, it's more than economics.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert: The individuals who've had to live with this and at times dealt with this and at times have felt their life is in danger. I don't know how to put a price on that.
Zeeble: Verified Response had it's defenders, including a few business owners, and Council Woman Vonciel Jones Hill. She reminded colleagues that nearly all alarms are false.
Dallas City Council Member Vonciel Jones Hill: Verified Response was and is about the utilization of a scarce resource. The offices of the Dallas Police Department. It dose not make sense to continue sending a scarce resource to false alarms when we have higher priorities.
Zeeble: The argument lost. Dallas Police Chief Kunkle, who'd pushed FOR the policy, expressed little surprise by the vote.
Kunkle: That doesn't bother me, I always respect the political process.The council and people, they believe alarms have more value if police respond to them. We will respond to alarms.
Zeeble: To the President of the North Texas Alarm Association, Chris Russell, the change was a big deal.
Chris Russell, President of the North Texas Alarm Association: This is just beginning of what's needed with Verified Response.
Zeeble: Russell expects to discuss possible changes with business owners and council members, to save police resources. He said only a few businesses cause most of the false alarms. Effective changes, he said, might require legislation in the next session of 2009. Meanwhile, the newest policy of responding to business alarms, now without a verified response, starts October 1st. Bill Zeeble KERA news.
Bzeeble@Kera.Org