Burglar Alarms

False Alarms

Turlock Police Officers responded to over 4,000 alarms in 2005 - over 98% were false alarms. For this reason, the City Council adopted the Verified Alarm Response Policy, implemented on February 1, 2006.

Law Enforcement Response

Turlock Police Officers will respond to intrusion alarms only after a private responder (guard or security company) or a secondary credible source of information (anything which indicates criminal activity, i.e. audio or visual monitoring) has confirmed that an attempted or actual crime has occurred at the alarm site.

Turlock Police Officers will only be dispatched to hold-up, panic or duress alarms originating from a stationary building.

Types of Alarms

Intrusion Alarm

This alarm sounds when a door or window is opened or when a motion detector inside a home is activated.

Panic Alarm

A panic alarm is an audible alarm signal generated by the manual activation of the alarm, signaling a life threatening or emergency situation.

Duress Alarm

A silent alarm signal generated by the manual activation of the alarm, intended to signal a life threatening situation or a crime in progress.

Hold-up alarm

A hold-up alarm is a silent alarm signal generated by the manual activation of the alarm, intended to signal a robbery in progress.

Contact Information

If you have recently installed a new alarm system, or need to update your existing alarm contact information, please contact your alarm company.

If you would like a copy of the Turlock Police Department Verified Response Alarm Policy, please email Sergeant Michael Parmley at mparmley@turlock.ca.us, or call (209) 664-7345.