LA PLATA, Md. (March 8, 2009)—Charles County residents and businesses who are hit with a "False Alarm Reduction" fine now have the luxury of paying online. The county government has added the payment option to their list of online electronic services at
www.charlescounty.org/pay/ .
A statement from the county government boasted that the online payment option is "offered at no charge to our customers."
Charles County police, fire, and emergency medical services personnel respond to over 10,000 false alarms each year, resulting in an estimated waste of approximately 5,000 emergency personnel man hours and thousands of dollars annually, according to the False Alarm Reduction Unit (FARU) web page.
Charles County False Alarm Ordinance No. 98-48 was adopted on June 1, 1998 by the Charles County Commissioners to address the false alarm issue.
More information is available at http://www.charlescounty.org/Es/faru/ .