Alarms stretch police resources

Thousands of false call outs are caused by alarms

Faulty alarms are stretching policing resources to the limit in Nottinghamshire, according to a senior officer.

The force's two control rooms are having to deal with thousands of unnecessary calls.

In a six month period, Nottinghamshire Police took around 11,000 calls connected to alarms.

But less than 10% of these turned out to be genuine.

Catching burglars

The Association of Chief Police Officers has an official policy of refusing to attend properties which have had more than three false alarms.

But in reality, officers still take time to investigate possible crimes.

Superintendent Dave Powell, who is in charge of the Control Rooms at Sherwood Lodge and Mansfield feels it is a waste of resources.

He said: "It is a waste of our time going to so many false alarms.

"It's easy to see its distracting us from the work we would like to be doing, like catching those people who are genuinely burgling properties."