The City of Santa Clara requires residential and business alarms to be registered with the Santa Clara Police Department. This includes new installations, previously installed systems or an existing system taken over by a new alarm user. It includes systems that are monitored by an alarm company as well as those that are not.
In 2017, SCPD received 3,493 burglar alarm dispatch requests; 793 of these calls were cancelled before an officer arrived and 2,640 were false alarms (e.g. user error, mechanical issue, etc.). Only 60 of the calls were valid.
The purpose of alarm registration is to ensure accurate, up-to-date information for Fire or Police personnel responding to your alarmed location. It also enables emergency personnel to contact responsible parties and/or alarm repair employees should your alarm need to be reset, has a recurring problem, or the site needs to be secured. Having this information readily available allows city personnel to return to providing services to the community in a timely manner.
There is a one-time Alarm Permit Application fee of $37 per residential or business site. Updates to an alarm permit are made at no charge and can be done by submitting an updated application. Application and submission details are available at www.scpd.org-Community-Permits. For questions, call (408)615-4871.
If the Police Department is dispatched as a result of an alarm and the responding officer finds no evidence of an attempted or actual criminal offense this is referred to as a False Alarm. Alarm users are allowed two false alarms per 12-month period at no charge. Each subsequent False Alarm is assessed on a per incident basis. An alarm dispatch request which is canceled by the alarm user or company prior to the time the responding officer reaches the alarm site will not be considered a False Alarm.
