Ordinances

Alarm ordinances are a reality of security system ownership. Authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) throughout Washington State, including cities and counties, have alarm ordinances in place to help them allocate law enforcement resources and minimize false alarms.

King County is the most populous county in Washington state and home to the state’s most populous city, Seattle. For this reason, we want to place special emphasis on understanding the alarm ordinances in King County, and how they affect property owners in the county with alarm monitoring services. 

If your property is in Seattle, it’s important to know the Seattle alarm ordinances that govern the way law enforcement will respond to your alarm signal. The Seattle Police Department is burdened by 11,000 false alarms per year, placing an undue drain on their resources in a time of heightened crime, homelessness and other priorities. Because of this, it’s critical that everyone in the city does their part to minimize the occurrence of false alarms. In addition, property owners want to do all they can to prevent themselves from incurring false alarm fines from the city. 

Enhanced call verification, or ECV, is a code found in the alarm ordinances of various authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ), such as a city or county. If an AHJ has the ECV code in their alarm ordinance, that means enhanced call verification must take place before law enforcement will respond to an alarm signal dispatch. When a resident’s alarm signal is triggered, the city requires the alarm monitoring provider to verify the emergency by making two phone calls before they dispatch police to the location of the alarm. 

Alarm ordinances in Washington state are different in every city, with each Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ, typically a city or county) having license to enforce their own rules for how security alarm signals are treated by law enforcement. This is a necessary measure to align alarm ordinances with each city or county.

Because code requirements for alarm signals vary from city to city in Washington state, it’s the responsibility of every homeowner who has a monitored security system installed to know the ordinances of their specific town. 

Did you know that the code requirements for alarm signals vary by municipality? In Washington state, each Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), such as a city or county, is expected to adopt their own processes for handling security alarm signals. Because occurrences of false alarms and the nature of emergencies can vary by area, it’s important to know what your local AHJ’s own procedures are for law enforcement response to alarm signals.