False alarms account for about 99 percent of the calls police and emergency services respond to every year.

And that is costing the City of Auburn and its police department a lot of money.

In 2007, 2,500 false alarms went off in the city, with police officers responding to 1,800 of them, at a cost to the city of more than $550,000.

And though the city received $35,000 from fines and first-time license applications, that amount was a relative drop in the bucket compared to what it was spending.

According to Police Chief Jim Kelly, the police response to alarms is often a code response, requiring a minimum of two officers, sometimes more, driving through the city with lights flashing and sirens on.

“The danger is that we don’t know that it’s false,” Kelly said. “Every alarm is generally considered a real alarm.”

Now the police department and the city attorney’s office are working to toughen the rules governing false alarms.

Members of the Municipal Services Committee picked over the latest draft of the ordinance Monday in Conference Room 3 on the second floor of City Hall.

“I think it’s very important that free up to respond to other calls because they are not wasting their time responding to false alarms,” said Committee Chair Gene Cerino.

Here are a few of the many recommendations:

• A charge of $100 for each false burglar alarm, $200 for each false holdup, robbery or panic alarm. Without this provision, city officials say, the city would not be able to recover its losses.

While false alarm fees will ultimately be charged for every false alarm, during an initial education period the fee for a first alarm will not apply under the ordinance.

• Require the alarm companies to train all of their operators well enough to limit the number of mistakes. It would require all alarm users or alarm companies before they call 911 to make two calls – the first to the location of the alarm, the second a followup to a second line or a cell phone to try to get hold of somebody to determine whether the alarm is valid.

Kelly estimated 194 alarm companies would be affected.

• Installers of new panels would be required to incorporate new technologies into the control panels to cut the number of false alarms. The revision would not require a modification of existing panels.

• A $24 residential and commercial annual registration fee and $12 senior discount.

• Outsource administration of the alarm program to one company.

“Our current ordinance does not address our need to solve the false alarm calls,” Police Sgt. Larry Miller said in December about the highly-detailed, 24-page ordinance. “There are things in here that really help in reducing the false alarms.”