Rockford to charge for false medical alarms

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ROCKFORD, Ill.—The Rockford Register Star on Feb. 8 reported that effective Feb. 11, the Rockford Fire Department would begin charging a fee for those responsible for false medical alarms.

With this change, false medical alarms will be treated the same as current false burglar and fire alarms and will be fined in accordance with a sliding fee schedule beginning with the transmission of the fifth false alarm.

Because of the expense and commitment of resources these calls draw from the city, officials have opted to include medical alarms in the existing false alarm ordinance.

The false alarm fee will be billed to the primary subscriber of the medical alarm service. Each subscription address will be allowed a total of four false alarms of any type (police, fire and medical) before being billed with the following fee schedule: fifth-eighth false alarm, $100 per false alarm; ninth-10th false alarm, $200 per false alarm; and more than 10 false alarms, $300 per false alarm.

In addition, all subscribers must obtain an alarm permit through the city's Finance Department. The fine for not having a valid permit is $300.