Every year, hundreds of hours of police time are spent checking into false burglar alarms from various businesses and individuals around Bonney Lake.

Beginning next month, the fines and fees for sending an officer to a false alarm could get much steeper under a new ordinance expected to pass council Tuesday.

“What the ordinance attempts to do is to refocus who is responsible for false alarms,” said Finance Director Al Juarez, whose department headed up the research on the new ordinance.

According to Juarez, police officers responded to 221 false alarms in 2010 and 240 in 2009.

Police Chief Mike Mitchell estimated each false alarm takes about 30 minutes of officer time to check out, but usually requires two officers for a total of one hour of time per false alarm.

“That’s a lot of additional resources spent on police work,” Juarez said.

At the council’s Feb. 15 workshop, councilmember Dan Decker did some quick math and pointed out that 200 hours of time is the equivalent of five 40-hour work weeks per year.

“We need to deal with this right away,” he said.

Under current law, individuals with alarms pay a $35 annual fee. There is no charge for the first two false alarms to an address. On the third false alarm, the city levies a $50 fine, which jumps to $100 for subsequent visits.

Juarez said the current structure does not “come close” to covering the costs associated with false alarms and is set up so that individuals without false alarms are subsidizing those do.

Under the proposed ordinance, there will be no freebies and every false alarm will come with a $100 fine, though the first fine can be waived if the individual participates in an education program.

However, the cost for having an alarm system drops to $24.

“The fee actually goes down 31 percent,” Juarez said.

In addition, false “panic” alarms, defined as a device to “signal that a robbery or violent crime is in progress” will now carry a fine of $200, because they require a larger police response.

Unlike the current law, the proposed law also includes a provision to cut the cost of registering an alarm system in half for seniors and the disabled.

Along with the new ordinance, the city is proposing that ATB Services, a professional alarm service company, handle the issue for the city, at a cost of $20 from each $24 fee.

According to Juarez, ATB projects a 50 percent reduction in false alarms.

“That’s excellent,” he said.

In addition, Juarez said he expects the number of alarm permits issued by the city – which dropped from 471 in 2009 to 226 in 2010 – to increase because ATB would be authorized to receive lists of homes with alarms from alarm companies and compel them to register their alarms.

Presently, Bonney Lake uses the honor system.

Juarez said in other municipalities where ATB took over the false alarm monitoring, alarm permits increased by more than 50 percent.

The council is expected to pass the measure Tuesday and it will go into effect 30 days after passage.

An education campaign about the new ordinance will also follow, with the city detailing the changes through its newsletter and in utility bills.