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1. Why am I sending my payments or correspondence to Philadelphia, PA?

New Castle County has contracted with Public Safety Corporation, based out of Waldorf, MD, to handle all maintenance, billing, and correspondence for the program. New Castle County provides Public Safety Corporation with a list of false alarm addresses on a daily basis which allows them to identify violations. The payments are sent to a lockbox in Philadelphia, and correspondence is forwarded to the Waldorf, MD, location.

2. Why was the False Alarm Reduction Program developed?

Through the implementation of this ordinance, the reduction of false alarms has allowed the police officers more time to handle calls for service and become proactive in the communities of New Castle County. At the program’s inception there were an average of 13,000 false alarms per year and a response time of approximately 25 minutes. The New Castle County Police were losing over 300,000 minutes (or 5,000 hours) of officer time every year to false alarms. This is the equivalent of 2.5 officers spending and entire year working on false alarms. It had been shown that with implementation of a false alarm ordinance, false alarms could be cut by up to 40%. That means that the New Castle County Police would get back about 130,000 minutes (or 2,166 hours) of actual police time.

3. Do I have to register my alarm?

Yes. No alarm user shall operate, or cause to be operated, an alarm system without a valid alarm registration. Failure to do so may result in a penalty.