By an 11-4 vote earlier today, the City Council repealed the verified response alarm program that was approved by the council a year ago and continued to be endorsed by Dallas police chief David Kunkle, according to the Dallas Business Journal. Council members voting to retain the policy: Elba Garcia, Angela Hunt, Vonciel Jones Hill and Pauline Medrano. The change, which had been championed by Mayor Tom Leppert, means that beginning Oct. 1, Dallas police must respond to all business alarms — false or otherwise — as opposed to requiring alarm companies to first verify that an actual burglary had occurred (which, as discussed in previous posts, happens only 3% of the time).
Earlier this week, Leppert said the reason to repeal the ordinance was that Dallas was losing business relocations to other cities because of business’ concern about the policy; I laughed out loud when I heard that explanation because it’s just too ludicrous to believe or substantiate (my guess is that rationale came from the alarm lobby, which has been against the policy since the beginning). Further Leppert reasoning: "I think it’s also important that we send a message that this is a council that is going to deal with decisions," the Journal quoted Leppert as saying during the meeting. "We will continue to look at all the issues … but at the same time we need to make a decision on this because this is not a good policy."
The message that I see loud and clear from this is that a number of council members are clearly under the sway of Leppert, who is a very persuasive guy, and that this is a council that is still so green that it will react to public pressure of any sort — however miniscule and unrepresentative — by immediately questioning its policy path. Except, of course, when it comes to public opinion on the Trinity River (couldn’t help myself on that one).
One more thing: Chief Kunkle, who is doing what I believe is an outstanding job, had better watch his back. If Leppert and the council are willing to undercut Kunkle this quickly on something he clearly endorsed as important to him, I wonder what the future holds for the chief?
