False alarm

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

A false alarm or false alarm is an erroneous or improper alerting example, fire department , ambulance service or the police that at no or an unnecessary use , a so-called false alarm insert leads.

Definition of terms

In Germany, the term false alarm is often used, although the term provided for according to DIN VDE 0833-1 (hazard detection systems for fire, burglary and hold-up) is false alarm . According to the definition of the DIN VDE 0833-1, a false alarm is an alarm that is not based on any danger . In Austria, however , the term false alarm is used in various legal texts derived from alarms received due to errors , while the term false alarm does not appear from a legal point of view.

Some argue that the word " failure " indicates a technical failure , as is the case with a technical alarm. A malicious alarm or false alarm is the result of an action by a person and is not based on a technical error. This is also why the “higher-level” term “false alarm” is justified, as it is often not known beforehand what the cause of the alarm was. After calculating a “false alarm”, argumentators could come to the conclusion that it was not a false alarm at all because there was an alarm that was false but did not represent a “missing” alarm (ie “false alarm”). However, the justification is unlikely to be legally tenable. In Germany, it is therefore recommended to use the correct legal term according to the recognized rules of technology, i.e. the standards, especially in the fee schedules of the authorities.

Classification in Germany

A false alarm can generally be classified as follows:

  • Technical alarm , often also commonly referred to as blind alarm : The term is not defined in the DIN VDE 0833 series of standards, but it does help to indicate the cause of a false alarm. Causes can be: The fire detector is defective or has been e.g. B. disturbed by electromagnetic fields ( EMC ).
  • Malicious alarm : This term is also not defined in the DIN VDE 0833 series of standards. What is meant is the improper alerting or the pretense of a dangerous situation or a criminal offense. The alarm was triggered by an intentional act without an actual need, e.g. B. on a push button alarm or by false triggering of a smoke alarm, z. B. by means of hairspray. The misuse of emergency calls is punishable in Germany ( Section 145 StGB ), but also via the emergency telephone numbers.
  • False alarm : This term is defined in DIN VDE 0833-1 as a false alarm, by faking a physical and / or chemical parameter of an automatic detector has arisen . The fire detector or the alarm system was thus deceived by effects that are similar to a real hazard, such as cigarette smoke , welding or kitchen fumes. The following organizational and technical measures have a positive effect on reducing the number of false alarms:
    • Establishment of a fire protection officer
    • Instruction and information
    • Renovation work with the involvement of fire protection specialists
    • Dealing with external companies
    • Intervention switching and intervention service
    • Technical condition of the fire alarm system (maintenance and revision)
    • Exceptions to the scope of protection
    • Definition of so-called "Non Fire Situations". In tests, situations are created that produce physical or chemical parameters but do not represent a fire (e.g. welding). Modern multi-criteria fire detectors are then parameterized - with the data obtained from the tests - in order to prevent the fire detectors from reporting a fire alarm under these ambient conditions.

Sometimes transmission errors (lack of responsibility with regard to the location or incorrect assumptions) are also the reason for a false alarm.

Fire alarm

A common cause of false alarms in the fire service is that a fire detector was not switched off during hot work ( e.g. welding ). In the opposite case, however, real fires can also occur without an alarm, because such fire detectors are not reactivated in good time after the work.

Technical defects in the fire alarm systems can also trigger a false alarm.

Intruder alarm

In intrusion alarm systems, a frequent cause of false alarms is that the so-called inevitability was not implemented during the design and implementation . For example, an armed property can be entered without disarming the system beforehand, which triggers an alarm. Often, however, unusable techniques for alarm detection are used, such as B. Air pressure changes or infrasound . The problem lies in the delimitation of a real trigger criterion from a commonly occurring environmental influence. Infrasound sources are, for example, wind turbines, passing vehicles, washing machines, refrigerators, and oil and gas heating systems. In the case of a vibration sensor, such an alarm can e.g. B. be triggered by drilling the craftsman when working on the building. Technical causes due to defects are less common.

The police therefore recommend only using hold-up and burglar alarm systems certified by recognized accreditation bodies in compliance with DIN VDE 0833-1 and DIN VDE 0833-3 from grade 2 and higher. The standards require that alarms are generally forwarded to an authorized assistance center (e.g. emergency call and service control center ). From there, before the police are notified, an alarm verification (alarm preliminary check) takes place, which usually avoids unnecessary alarm operations by the police and thus saves false alarm fees.

Assumption of costs

In Germany, a false alarm that results in a fire brigade or police operation is usually chargeable. Persons who accusingly set off a false alarm are liable to pay damages and are criminally responsible ( § 145 , § 145d StGB). If the alarming person acted to the best of their knowledge and belief and no intent can be identified, the general public pays the costs. In this respect, there is no reason not to alert the fire brigade in the event of a suspected but unsecured danger.

The police in Hesse will charge € 200 for a police operation in the event of a false alarm. An alarm is the triggering of an alarm, hazard reporting, signal, warning or emergency call system, an emergency call system or a comparable system or a comparable system including technical faults or interruptions in the transmission path for the alarm forwarding. The alarm is false if the police do not find indications of a criminal offense or a dangerous situation (see 5311 of the administrative cost regulations).

Since July 2016, the police in North Rhine-Westphalia have waived a fee for false alarms for private house owners. "Modern security technology is an important means of combating burglary," said Interior Minister Ralf Jäger. “It would therefore be counterproductive to keep asking homeowners to pay for false alarms. We want to encourage the people in North Rhine-Westphalia to dial 110 immediately if something seems suspicious to them. "

A homeowners association has to bear the costs of a fire brigade, triggered by a false alarm from a fire detector. This is independent of whether the tenant or landlord has installed the fire alarm. The landlord has to pay for the damage.

It is a misconception that the existence of a certification of an alarm system protects against a charge in the event of a false alarm.

"If a technical protective device does not work properly and thus triggers a police operation, the operator must expect to have to pay a fee for the operation, regardless of whether a self-built or a professional and tested system has triggered," says Dietmar Schorn from the Criminal Police Office Crime prevention by the Düren police.

Mario Heinemann, spokesman for the police headquarters in Brandenburg, states that even the best alarm system is not immune to errors. Therefore, courts would repeatedly reject appeals from those affected who defend themselves against fee notices. It is often argued that their alarm system is certified or that the false alarm could not be clearly proven. “Nevertheless, [the operator] has to pay for the unnecessary use. Property obliges"

The police in Hessen explained the connections for the calculation u after a false alarm was used. a. as follows:
False alarm: who pays for the police operation and why?
For those affected, a break-in not only represents material damage, but rather a serious invasion of privacy, which must be prevented together. The prevention of burglary is an important concern of the Hessian police. The burglar alarm system you have installed, but especially attentive neighbors or passers-by, can help prevent a break-in.
What is a false alarm?
A false alarm is when the alarm is triggered even though there are no indications of a danger or criminal offense (e.g. signs of a break in). If the police receive information about a triggered burglar alarm system - whoever reported it - an on-site inspection usually takes place in the form of a property inspection to determine whether a false alarm has occurred or whether there has actually been a risk to your property. A police operation triggered by a false alarm binds emergency services that could otherwise have been deployed in the general interest. Therefore, police operations due to false alarms are chargeable. If there was an objective danger or if there are even indications of a criminal act (e.g. evidence of a break in), the police operation is of course always free of charge for you.
Why is a false alarm chargeable?
Anyone who operates a burglar alarm system that emits an alarm to the outside (e.g. signaling device on the outside wall) aims to notify the police for each alarm event and accepts that the police will access the property to be protected even in the event of a false alarm visits even though no break-in attempt has taken place. The same applies if the alarm is forwarded to an authorized person or an authorized body (e.g. guard and security company) and the alarm is reported to the police without being checked for authenticity. In the event of a false alarm, the police operation primarily serves to protect private property. Its protection is basically the responsibility of the owner or system operator. For this reason, in the event of a false alarm, as the initiator of the police operation, the system operator bears the costs of the police operation and not the general public.
The attentive neighbor or passer-by is not
obliged to pay If your burglar alarm system is triggered and an attentive neighbor or passer-by notifies the police, the concerned resident or passer-by does not have to pay for the police operation; not even if it was a false alarm. Anything else would punish the honest third party worried about his neighbour's property and could deter him from further emergency calls in the future.
How can you prevent police deployment costs?
The police recommend compliance with DIN VDE 0833-1 and DIN VDE 0833-3 from level 2 and higher with regard to hold-up and burglar alarm systems. Grade 1 is not recommended by the police in Germany due to insufficient technology. According to DIN VDE 0833-3, if a burglar alarm is triggered, a remote alarm to an authorized assistance center (e.g. emergency call and service control center ) and only an external alarm via an acoustic external signal generator within the security area is provided. By triggering a loud alarm inside the building, the perpetrators are also “put under psychological pressure” so that they can give up their act more quickly due to the noise. According to DIN VDE 0833-3, acoustic external signaling devices outside the security area (ie on the outside wall of the building) are only permitted in exceptional cases, e.g. B. remote object, deficits in alarm transmission security, permissible.
This ensures that an alarm verification (alarm pre-test) takes place from there due to the forwarding of the alarm to an auxiliary body . It is therefore no longer necessary to issue an alarm on site via acoustic external signaling devices outside the security area and thus to the anonymous public (e.g. neighbors), because the police would certainly be informed from there, which then may cause false alarm charges.

Test messages

Another type of alarm without a real alarm case are test messages that must be displayed beforehand at the emergency and / or service control center to which the alarm system is connected or activated . It makes sense not to speak of a test alarm, as there is no potential to prevent danger, but only a test message that usually has to be carried out as part of an inspection or maintenance.

Automated test reports are also agreed with the emergency call and / or service control center (test calls / routine reports). These are usually done at least once a day and are used to test the transmission paths used from the dialer to the alarm receiving center and to ensure that possible alarms can be transmitted.

consequences

False alarms also harbor the risk of the alarmed groups of people getting used to it . This means that even justified alarms may no longer be taken seriously. An example of this is likely to be the alarm systems of vehicles, which at least in urban surroundings are ignored by the vast majority of people and are mostly only perceived as annoying because a malfunction or other causes that do not necessarily have to do with a crime are suspected.

In addition, hazards can arise with every alarm trip, so it is noted in Annex 8 of the police ÜEA guideline : Always keep in mind that the police forces try to get to the property immediately when an alarm is triggered, often making use of special rights and the endangerment of their lives and possibly that of uninvolved third parties.

Signal discovery theory

False alarms are also a technical term used in signal detection theory and can mean, for example, that a doctor believes he is seeing a tumor on an X-ray that is not there. An HIV or pregnancy test can also be false positive .

frequency

The exact number of false alarms in Germany is unknown. According to the Hesse police, officers have to move out around 500,000 times nationwide every year due to false alarms caused by attack and burglar alarm systems .

In Viersen far more than 90% of the signaled intrusion reports are false alarms.

The alarm messages from fire alarm systems are also often false alarms. Example: In the district of Munich , the frequency was 97% in 1996 and 91% in 2007.

A false alarm rate of 100% means that there was at least one false alarm but not a single real alarm. The number of false alarms can be as high as you like with this information. For this reason, the number of false alarms per system per year is now specified in the police sector. In the area of ​​hold-up and burglar alarm systems (ÜMA / EMA), police studies show that in Germany there are still relatively low false alarm rates of around 1.2 false alarms per system per year. This is particularly due to the inevitability defined in Germany . According to police experience, this effectively prevents the occurrence of false alarms, which is why this is one of the most important requirements in police regulations, such as the ÜEA directive , or in the guidelines of the VdS loss prevention . In the case of hold-up / burglar alarm systems or systems for emergencies / dangers with a connection to the police , which must meet higher-quality requirements, the false alarm rate is only around 0.8 false alarms per system per year.

literature

  • Adam Merschbacher: Security Analysis for Businesses. VdS Schadenverhütung Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-936050-04-X .
  • Adam Merschbacher: Security analysis for households. VdS Schadenverhütung Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-936050-03-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haltmeier, Marcel (2014): Reduction of fire brigade operations by reducing false alarms from automatic fire alarm systems. Krems, October 16, 2014 (PDF)
  2. ↑ (Administrative cost regulations for the division of the Ministry of the Interior and for Sport (VwKostO - MdIS))
  3. ↑ NRW abolishes fees for false alarms | The state portal Wir in NRW. July 16, 2016, accessed February 19, 2018 .
  4. ^ Administrative Court Schleswig judgment of May 27, 2003, Az. 3 A 133/02.
  5. ^ District court Hanover Az. 537 C 17077/05.
  6. ↑ Jörg Abels: Defective alarm systems can be expensive if there is a false alarm . In: Aachener Zeitung . ( aachener-zeitung.de [accessed on February 19, 2018]).
  7. ↑ False alarms can cost money ( Memento from February 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ merkur-online.de: False alarms for the fire brigade - almost 500 times a year in the Munich district
  9. ↑ Blue light trip despite false alarms ( Memento from February 20, 2019 in the Internet Archive )