The Infinite Brief

False alarms aren’t just irritating — they take police away from real emergencies, risk lives and make alarm systems less credible.

As an example, Dayton, Ohio police responded to 2,915 false burglar alarms in 2017. That’s down 6 percent from 2016 and 42 percent from 2013.

In 2001, the Dayton police department received about 13,820 burglar alarm calls.