Evaluation of alternative policies to combat false emergency calls

Abstract

Ninety-four to ninety-nine percent of all police physical responses to burglar alarm activations are false. In 2000 police responded to 36 million false calls at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion. This paper presents and evaluates ten police policies for dealing with this waste of police resources. The paper then suggests that a public–private partnership will yield the highest net social benefits and avoids undesired cross subsidization. It further shows that implementation of a market oriented economic model where the police fulfill merely their public obligation is preferred to intuitive solutions that are often used by police.