FAQs • Spokane Valley, WA • CivicEngage

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Police - False Alarm Reduction Unit

1. Why does Spokane Valley charge a fee for false alarm response? Don’t my taxes cover this?: Your taxes appropriately pay for police response to legitimate calls for police service. False alarms, by definition, are not legitimate calls for police service. In fact, false alarm response prevents our police from responding to legitimate calls for police service. Requiring those responsible for false alarms to pay for false alarm response protects the majority of Spokane Valley citizens (those without alarm systems and those who operate their systems responsibly) from paying for the errors of others.

2. How is the recovery fee determined?: The recovery fee is not a fine. It is specifically calculated to recover the cost of police response plus a small amount of administrative cost. Periodic analysis of police dispatch data is used to determine the average amount of time for false alarm response. The time is multiplied by the cost that Spokane Valley pays Spokane County for police service.

3. Can I opt out of the program?: Yes. Simply notify your alarm monitoring company not to request police dispatch to alarm activations at your alarm site.

4. Can I appeal an assessed recovery fee?: Yes. SVMC Chapter 7.20.170 defines an appeal process under a limited set of circumstances. Specifically, a cost recovery fee may be appealed only if there is credible evidence that the alarm activation was the result of actual criminal activity or an extreme weather event or natural disaster.

5. Is the False Alarm Reduction Program operated locally?: Yes. Many of you may recall that in the past portions of the program were operated by a third party. City of Spokane Valley staff and the Spokane Valley Police Department collaborated to simplify the program and bring it entirely within local control and administration. This resulted in a program that has minimized government intrusion and reduced the cost to our citizens.

The following payment options are available to you: online, telephone, by mail, and in person.

Online: Refer to your false alarm notification letter. It contains a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Incident Number that you will need to enter to complete your online payment.
Telephone: Phone payments may be made at 844-719-3085. Your false alarm notification letter will contain a CAD Incident Number that you will need to enter to complete your payment.
By Mail: Payments (check only) may be mailed to the Spokane Valley Police Precinct Building at 12710 E Sprague Avenue, Spokane Valley, Washington, 99216. Be sure to include the lower portion of you notification letter. It contains the CAD incident Number that will allow the payment to be correctly applied to your false alarm incident.
In Person: Credit card payments are accepted at the front counter of the Precinct Building. A receipt will be provided to you at that time.

7. Where does the money go?: All collected funds go to the Spokane Valley general fund. It is from this fund that Spokane Valley pays for law enforcement services.