Vallejo Police Department's Second Town Hall Meeting Regarding The Proposed Special Order
VALLEJO, CA - On September 7, 2023, from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M., the Vallejo Police Department will hold its second town hall meeting regarding the response to Alarm Calls.
Due to limited sworn police staffing, the Vallejo Police Department has been forced to make many difficult decisions, including those related to a reduction in police services. We have carefully examined a variety of calls for service and have determined that alarm calls have approximately a 98% rate of being unfounded. In an effort to provide efficient services to our community, we are proposing to no longer respond to selected unverified alarm calls.
Unfortunately, our proposal will eliminate calls for service to unverified alarm calls classified as Audible Alarm, or Silent Alarm. We will continue to respond to manually activated Panic Alarms and Silent Robbery Alarms. We will also respond to alarm calls that demand a dual response which requires both the Police and Fire Department for medical reasons. Additionally, we will respond to Video Alarms that depict an in-progress crime occurring or having just occurred.
Dispatch personnel are directed to perform the following:
1) Take the phone call from the alarm company or other applicable caller.
2) Input the call for service in its entirety, including the area of activation(s).
3) If the alarm is determined to be an Audible Alarm or a Silent Alarm, the dispatcher will explain to the caller that we will not be responding to unverified alarm activations and offer the reporting party the incident number.
4) The call will then be cleared out with a disposition of “PC, canceled due to lack of staffing protocol.
5) If we can determine a burglary is in progress, the dispatcher will dispatch the event based on call priority and staffing availability as soon as practical.
This special order directive does not exclude police response if the Watch Commander determines that response is necessary. The watch commander can direct field units dispatched to the event in accordance with standards.
For media inquiries, please contact Public Information Officer, Sgt. Rashad Hollis by email at [email protected]. or by phone at (707) 567-4233.
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