Following a break-in at his business early Tuesday morning, an Alliston business owner is upset with the Nottawasaga Police Service Board’s policy to fine businesses and homeowners for repeated false alarms.

James Morden, owner of the Rentshop, went to work at his east-end Alliston business Tuesday morning and was greeted by a smashed glass door and nine missing chainsaws.

At about 2:45 a.m., someone hopped the security fence around the property and used a heavy piece of metal to smash the window, Morden said. They then snatched up the chainsaws before taking off. While the discovery was upsetting, it didn’t come as a complete surprise. Morden received a call from his alarm company at the time of the break-in, but he assumed it was a false alarm.

During the past few weeks he has had two false alarms, he said. One was around the same time as the break-in. He now suspects the initial two alarms weren’t false at all, but were caused by the thieves to distract him when it came time for the real thing.

Morden said that he didn’t dispatch police  this time, because he suspected it was just another false alarm, and he didn’t want to be fined. It wasn’t until Tuesday morning that he realized it was an actual break-in.

The experience has left Morden upset with a police policy of fining people after more than two false alarms a year.

“We’ve been hit a number of times, and my real concern is the policy for false alarms. It really makes it difficult for businesses.”

In 2002, the Nottawasaga Police Services Board instituted a fine system for false alarms because they were becoming an increasing drain on a police force that was already stretched thin, said police services board chair and New Tecumseth Mayor Mike MacEachern. The board is made up of community representatives and provides direction on local issues to the Nottawasaga Detachment.

Under the system, a written warning is issued after the second false alarm within a calendar year. There is a $100 fine for the third false alarm, $200 fine for the fourth, and $300 for the fifth. After the sixth false alarm in a year, police have the ability to suspend service to the business or residence.

Had Morden called the police and it was a false alarm, he could have been fined $100.

MacEachern said the policy is not meant to discourage people from calling police, but instead to encourage them to make sure alarm systems are working properly.

“We do have a number of locations where we have a number of false alarms and we’re trying to encourage people to update their systems,” he said.

Before the fine system was put in place, Nottawasaga OPP responded to over 1,000 false alarm calls a year, said detachment commander Dave Farrar. For each alarm call, two police officers have to respond because the perpetrators could still be in the building and the situation is potentially dangerous, he said.

With over 1,000 calls a year, Farrar said considerable resources were being drawn away from patrols and real calls.

So far, the false alarm policy has seemed to work in bringing down the numbers. In 2004 there was only 841 calls, and in 2007 the number was down to about 800. Farrar said with the growth in the area, the detachment is happy just to keep the numbers from rising again.

Despite the reduction, Morden said the system puts businesses at a disadvantage in situations like his.

Farrar said police look at each instance individually and determine whether or not it was indeed a false alarm. If there looks to be a valid reason the alarm went off, police do not count that towards the annual limit. For instance, police receive higher than usual calls during thunderstorms and windstorms, and those calls do not count, he said.

“If we investigate and we don’t have a clear reason, then we’ll take a little bit closer look at it,” said Farrar. “If the owner has any kind of reasonable, plausible reason that makes it out of their control (it’s not a false alarm).”

Farrar said he doesn’t know the full details from the Rentshop break-in yet, and wouldn’t comment on the specific case. He said that it is possible that someone was testing the alarm system for the previous alarm calls though.

Morden said he wasn’t satisfied with the police investigation of his most recent false alarms, and that officers had investigated the premises and left before he arrived.

MacEachern said the board is willing to work with businesses to make sure their alarm systems are up to standards and that there is leniency for businesses under specific circumstances.

Nottawasaga OPP ask that a staff member with full access to the business and alarm system be at the premises within 30 minutes of the call. MacEachern said the services board is open to suggestions from the community, and is looking at instituting changes to the policy at a meeting at tonight (Wednesday). The meeting is at 5 p.m. at the New Tecumseth municipal offices in Alliston.

In hindsight, Morden said the $100 fine he would have received for a false alarm call would have been better than the loss incurred by the break-in, but he still doesn’t like the policy. His business has been robbed before, and he is now updating his alarm system again to make the place more secure.

The Rentshop case is still under investigation, and police currently have no suspects. The nine stolen chainsaws were made by Echo and Husqvarna.

There were two other break-ins Monday night, but police said they don’t think they are related. Some power tools were stolen from a home on Elm Street in Angus. A business in Baxter was also broken into, but nothing was stolen.

Anyone with information about the crimes is asked to call police at 905-729-4004 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.