Cass County fining repeat offenders?
By SSN Staff
Updated Fri May 6, 2011
LOGANSPORT, Ind.—A May 5 story from the Pharos Tribune reports Cass County homes and businesses might soon start paying a penalty if their alarm systems repeatedly go off by mistake.
County commissioners the week of May 1 unanimously passed an ordinance aimed at reducing the number of false alarms reported to the Cass County Sheriff's Department.
For the first two false alarms, there is no charge to the homeowner or business. The third false alarm would bring a $25 fee, which could be waived if the property owner offered a valid excuse in writing and explained plans to correct the problem to prevent the false alarm from occurring again.
After that, the fees go up. The county will fine homeowners and businesses $50 for the next three violations and $100 for the following three. The fine would jump to $200 for all subsequent false alarms.
According to the ordinance, violators have two weeks to pay up. If they don't, the fine would double.
The money from fines will go into a non-reverting fund for use by the sheriff's department.
If the ordinance is approved by the county council, the new law will go into effect 30 days after publication.
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