09/26/05  Verified Response is bad for criminals because response times will be cut in half.

Commentary on the Facts:

1) The Texas State Legislature is responsible for the change to BMV law. Cities that have implemented VR have experienced long term reductions in crime.

2) The police are telling you they would like to have the opportunity to actually arrest some criminals. The 47,000 policing hours that were wasted in 2004 could be spent patrolling neighborhoods and investigating the 3% of alarm calls where a crime was actually committed.  The theory of broken windows and the near absence of crime in countries like Japan rely on one very important fact. The crime rate goes down when criminals believe there is certainty that they will be arrested.

3) Crime fighting is not going private, but our government subsidy to alarm companies needs to end.  Only in the world of government could a process that is wrong 97% of the time continue to exist.  Under VR, standard alarm response times typically fall from 45-180 minutes to about 20 minutes. Response times for "panic" calls typically fall from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. The City of Dallas is returning the $50 permit fee to residential alarm owners in anticipation of any increase in service fees from alarm companies.

4) The comment is not related to the fact about response times. All good citizens agree with pursuing and catching criminals. Under the current status quo, you are making a decision to allocate 47,000 hours of officer time chasing electronic ghosts instead of allocating that time to solving actual crime.  Precious policing power that could be spent patrolling neighborhoods in prevention, analyzing real crimes, and arresting criminals.  Time spent in solving crimes and arresting criminals is what will make the crime rate go down.

5) The city of Dallas will not lose $4 million dollars in tax revenue. The city has a current revenue stream of $3.8 million dollars attributed to alarm permit fees. As part of the VR initiative, the city will return $1.3 million dollars of revenue to the citizens of Dallas by waiving the $50 permit fee for residential alarm owners. Business owners will continue to pay alarm permit fees.  Not a dime of tax dollars has been spent on this initiative, the direct mail piece was paid for by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. The business community wants VR to happen because they understand that all they are doing 45 minutes after the alarm signal goes off is handing over the security tapes. Pumping more tax dollars into a process with a perceived yield of 3% is bad public policy. Further, almost no arrests are made in the 3% of calls where an actual crime is committed, dropping the actual arrest yield to a rounding error. Citizens of Dallas should have better service. I have reviewed the calculation for 41 officers and 4 administrative personnel with Tim Dickey (owner of an alarm company) who is quoted in an earlier article.  I would be happy to do so with any citizen. The labor calculation used is consistent with standard industry practices.

The Commission on Productivity & Innovation is a City of Dallas board where I have volunteered to serve at no charge to the city. The committee is well represented by a cross section of business and community leaders. Personally, I have spent the last 15 years advising corporations on productivity initiatives. The vote in favor of VR was unanimous.

Judd D. Bradbury
President, Maverick Consulting