Finance and public-safety staff propose higher alarm fees and insurer-based fire-response billing

City finance, police and fire staff proposed two revenue measures at the June 30 workshop: (1) update alarm-permit and false-alarm fees for commercial and financial-institution alarm systems and add a reduced permit fee for seniors; (2) contract with a third-party billing firm to seek insurance reimbursement for certain fire responses (structure fires, vehicle fires, hazardous-material responses and select motor-vehicle-accident scenes).

Police staff reported a large number of alarm-permit cases and false alarms in the year-long sample and compared Duncanville's current $35 permit to higher permit levels in neighboring cities. Staff recommended raising commercial alarm permits to $100 per year, financial-institution permits to $200, adopting a $25 senior permit, and raising robbery/critical false-alarm fines to $150 for the first occurrence plus $50 for each additional false alarm.

Fire staff said many responses to significant incidents generate equipment, cleanup and PPE costs (e.g., $3,475 estimated for replacement bunker gear in a lithium-ion battery-related fire) and that a vendor that already handles EMS billing for the city could administer fire-response billing on a contingency basis (vendor fee deducted from collections). Staff emphasized that insurers — not residents — would typically be billed and that collection rates vary; staff gave conservative collection estimates and asked for authority to draft ordinances and contracts for council review.

Council asked for sample ordinances and collection estimates; staff said they would return with draft ordinance language, modeled revenue projections and fee schedules for council consideration.

Sources: Police/fire staff presentations at the June 30, 2026 workshop.