Response, Recovery and Verification

Alarm Response

• The Toronto Police Service will respond to an alarm signal provided the following is understood and agreed to:
  • The monitoring station is not suspended from requests for police response
  • The alarm system is not suspended from police response
  • The monitoring station has followed the approved verification process
• The Toronto Police Service will not provide a response to alarm systems that have been communicated via an automatic dialing device and/or pre-recorded message
• Police response is determined by the nature of demand, priorities and resources available at the time of the request for police response.

Please review the Alarm Response Policy below for further information.

Cost Recovery

• The Cost Recovery Program was established to address the issues of increased demands for response to alarm systems compounded by reduced availability of fiscal and human resources
• The Cost Recovery Program was introduced in September, 1996
• There was an immediate decrease in the number of false alarm events attended by police
• The past ten years have seen only a modest decrease in false alarm events
• The By-law governing the Cost Recovery Program permits the issuance of a fee for any alarm event that has been accepted by a police field unit and is determined to be false
• The Toronto Police Service will invoice for a cancelled alarm that has been accepted by a police field unit prior to receiving a cancellation request from the monitoring station current fee for response to a false alarm event is $130.00
• False alarm fees are invoiced to the monitoring station

Please review the Alarm Response Policy below for further information.

Alarm Verification

• Cause of an alarm signal can range from valid cause to technical problems
• The Toronto Police Service has worked with the Canadian Alarm and Security Association (CANASA), the Underwriters Laboratories of Canada (ULC) and the Insurance Advisory Organization (IAO) to develop a verification process
• CANASA online literature claims that 75% of all false dispatches are caused by the user
• Break & Enter signals must be verified before a request for police attendance is made
• A verified response will be dispatched to the first available police unit