KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City business owner is livid because police refused to respond to his burglar alarm he recently installed. The reason, he says, he didn’t have a $45 permit on file.
This isn’t the first time business owner Abe Karmi has dealt with a burglary. Last month someone stole two cars and several titles out of his offices. On Monday he said he was victimized again, but this time by the police.
“Alarm went off, security company called me and say, ‘Hey, somebody break into your shop.’ Well I told them go ahead and call the police,” Karmi said. “The alarm company called the police, two minutes later called me back said, ‘Well, they can’t come because supposed to fill out some kind of a permit that you didn’t have.”
Karmi couldn’t believe it so he picked up the phone.
“I called the police, said I need somebody there, somebody on my lot. Well she said we can’t send anybody unless you have a permit, so that didn’t help. I had no idea that this exists, nobody every told me,” said Karmi.
But the ordinance does exist, it was adopted years ago to help cut down on the number of false alarm calls officers had to respond too. The policy clearly states “Police response on an alarm activation will be denied until the alarm user has obtained the alarm permit.”
Karmi doesn’t agree with it, but has started the process and wanted to warn other business owners.
“I need to tell every one of them make sure they fill out this permit, otherwise they’re not going to show up,” urged Karmi
If you don’t have a permit, you can download the application off the police department website or get one at police headquarters.
