Burglar alarm calls in Sandy Springs will go unanswered for some

City officials say of the nearly 11,000 alarms last year, nearly 100 percent were false, and the alarm companies did not pay their fines.

Sandy Springs will no longer respond to burglar alarms from five companies that either failed to register with the city or failed to pay fines for false alarms.

Three of those companies — Patterson Security Services, RTA Security and Security Sales & Service — have a total of 52 customers in Sandy Springs. The other two companies, Banner Security Systems, Inc. and Safe Home Security, did not register any customers in the city.

Sandy Springs also said Thursday that seven companies had never registered with the city, and their customers were never eligible for alarm response. Those companies are: Alarm Force, Consumer Security Services of Ga., EDE Systems Inc., Interlink Control, Nationwide Integrators Inc., Safecom Security Solutions and Strong Security.

Originally, 39 companies were non-compliant and at risk of having their alarm calls unanswered.

The city said 97 percent of its 12,000 alarm calls in 2016 were false alarms, and last year it passed an ordinance requiring alarm companies — not residents — to pay fines when there were false alarms at a home or business. Representatives of the alarm companies sued the city last month in federal court, saying the ordinance is unconstitutional.

Sandy Springs will continue to respond to fire alarms, panic buttons, duress calls and hold-up calls, as well as direct calls to 911.