§ 18 and 19. Mr. Eadieasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what steps the police take in the Metropolitan Area when burglar alarms go off accidentally;
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of burglar alarms which have gone off accidentally during the last two months in the Metropolitan Police area.
§ Mr. TaverneThe Metropolitan Police answer all burglar alarm calls from instruments connected to the information room at New Scotland Yard except calls generated by instruments that have persistently given false alarms and have not, despite full warning, been put right.
Last January and February, the Metropolitan Police answered 10,487 burglar alarm calls which were found to be false; but genuine calls during the same period led to the immediate arrest of 39 persons at 21 premises.
§ Mr. EadieIs my hon. and learned Friend aware that in the Streatham district in particular, to put it in Parliamentary terms, people have been submitted to all-night sittings because of burglar alarms going off falsely? Is he not perturbed about the figures which he has given? Do they not show that the whole burglar alarm system must be very suspect indeed?
§ Mr. TaverneMy hon. Friend has a point. It is a well-known feature of burglar alarms that at the moment there is no way of ensuring that the majority of these calls are genuine. There are many reasons why a burglar alarm can go off wrongly. The system which is followed at the moment is that if six false calls are received from an installation, the alarm company and the Association of Burglary Insurance Surveyors are warned, and also warned that if there are further false alarms the calls will not be answered. I agree that this is a problem.