Arlington County’s Alarm Program, managed by Alarm Programs Systems, LLC, administers the County’s Security Alarm Ordinance while working to reduce unnecessary public safety responses caused by unintentional or faulty alarm activations through false alarm enforcement.
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Arlington County Code Chapter 33 Security Alarms
Arlington County Code Chapter 33 requires every security alarm system, excluding fire or vehicle alarms, to be registered annually with the Arlington County Police Department and alarm users must pay an annual registration fee of $25.00. Any alarm user who fails to ensure compliance with the registration requirement may be subject to an administrative service fee of $50. Alarm companies are responsible for ensuring that an alarm system is registered before the alarm system is activated or placed into service.
A false alarm is defined as any alarm signal which elicits a response by police personnel; and for which there is no evidence of criminal activity to justify a police response. Arlington County Code Chapter 33 establishes a fee for police response to two or more false alarms within a 12-month period. These fees apply only if dispatched police arrive on-site to a location with a false alarm activation. For additional information, see answers to our frequently asked questions.
Securely close and lock all protected doors and windows before activating your alarm system.
Keep pets, fans, heaters and other motion-based items away from motion sensor alarms.
Know your alarm company’s process to cancel unintentional or faulty alarms.
Do not call 9-1-1 to cancel alarm activations. You must call your alarm company’s monitoring station.
Before dispatching the police, alarm companies must attempt to verify every alarm signal except for hold-up alarms.
If an alarm signal is false, alarm companies must immediately attempt to cancel the police dispatch.
Alarm companies must not request police dispatch to an alarm activation until the alarm system has the proper registration.
When new alarm systems are installed, alarm companies should provide users with a completed and signed installation certificate affirming:
Arlington County Alarm Program 888-865-9770 arlingtonva@citysupport.org