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Richland police propose alarm permits, verification and fines after 1,509 alarm responses in 2024
Summary
Chief Marty Pilcher told council the police department responded to 1,509 alarm calls in 2024, more than 98% of which were false. Staff outlined options including requiring alarm permits, enhanced call verification and a sliding fine schedule; council requested benchmarking, equity analysis and legal review.
Richland Police Chief Marty Pilcher told the City Council on Jan. 28 that the department responded to 1,509 alarm calls in 2024 and that more than 98 percent of those calls were false alarms, and presented options to reduce responses and recover costs.
“Nationwide, statistics indicate regularly, and it certainly has been throughout my career, that 94 to 98% of alarms are false,” Chief Marty Pilcher said. He also said each alarm call typically requires “about 20 minutes of time from 2 officers” to travel, investigate and clear the call.
Chief Pilcher said the department’s top 10 most frequent false‑alarm locations were commercial sites and together produced 356 of the 1,509 calls in 2024. He presented an estimated monetary cost of roughly $145,000…
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