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 plenty.

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, it was a relative drop in the bucket compared to what it was spending.

Now the police department and the city attorney’s office want to stiffen the rules governing false alarms.

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

Police Chief Jim Kelly will present the latest draft to the Municipal Services Committee at 4 p.m., Jan. 12 in Conference Room 3 on the second floor of City Hall.

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, Miller said, 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.

• Installers of new panels would have 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.