What would you do with $1.8 billion? That is the amount that is wasted on false alarms each year. Every time a balloon or animal sets off a motion detector and the police are called to a home or business, two or three officers divert their attention away from real crimes to investigate a harmless situation. False alarm ordinances protect police resources and raise awareness about responsible alarm ownership.

A recent proposal for a false alarm ordinance in Bellevue, Wash. reports that the Bellevue Police Department responds to an average of 3,360 alarms per year, 98% of which are false. It is estimated that the annual cost of these false alarms is more than $85,000. Bellevue’s statistics are not the exception — false alarms continue to be a growing problem across the country, and that is why we support the current petition to enact verified alarm response laws throughout the United States.

Taxpayers subsidize police response to false alarms, regardless of whether or not they have a security system. We believe there are better uses for those dollars. U.S. cities that enact laws that require security companies to verify an alarm prior to police dispatch significantly lower false alarm rates and save millions of dollars.

Signing the verified alarm petition is a simple, 30 second process—all done online. Visit: wh.gov/lVuaA, and click on “create an account.” Fill in your name, email, and the security question, and then verify the email sent to your account.

That’s it. Petition signed, and progress made toward verified alarm laws and broader verified alarm awareness.