The burglary of a local sporting goods store caught the attention of the Lincoln City Council  and has prompted talk of tightening the city’s ordinance governing false alarms.

During an informal council meeting Monday, Councilman Doug Emery asked the police chief about the Oct. 1 theft of more than 80 guns from Scheels All Sports.

Casady said Scheels’ alarm went off at 1:40 a.m. and went to a security company’s central monitoring station. A Scheels manager was contacted at 1:52 a.m., and the manager went to the store to check things out. Police were notified at 2:12 a.m., he said.

“We were there in three minutes,” Casady said.

Police have said the culprits left the store eight minutes after shattering the glass doors. Casady didn’t know why it took 12 minutes for the security company to notify the manager.

He said he’s sure if the Scheels manager could do things over again, he’d have alerted police immediately.

Some businesses have repeated false alarms — one, which Casady declined to name, has had 37 so far this year — he said. He said Scheels has had one false alarm so far this year and had four last year.

“This was just a fluke,” Casady said of the successful break-in.

Discussion of the break-in led to talk of tightening Lincoln’s ordinance governing false alarms.

So far this year, Lincoln police have responded to more than 3,000 false alarms, each of which ties up at least two police cruisers that respond in full emergency mode.

Casady estimated “way less than 10 percent” of alarms are “true alarms.” False alarms are a headache in many cities, and in some areas police stop responding after repeated false alarms. Some cities also require businesses and homes with alarms to pay a fee to register with the city.

Casady said Lincoln’s alarm ordinance hasn’t changed since it was enacted in 1982. It allows four false alarms without repercussion; the fifth brings a $25 fine. Most cities allow one or two false alarms before triggering escalating fines, Casady said.

“We have one of the more liberal alarm ordinances that you’d find anywhere,” he said.

In Omaha, for example, you get one freebie and then get hit with a $100 fine for the second false alarm, $100 for the third and $250 for the fourth.

Casady believes Omaha’s strict ordinance has actually helped reduce the number of false alarms in Lincoln due to the number of businesses that operate in both communities and have changed their practices to avoid false alarms. Lincoln police responded to 4,848 false alarms in 2002.

Casady met with security companies in July to talk about stiffening Lincoln’s alarm ordinance. He said he expected them to oppose the idea, but they supported it because they also want to reduce the number of false alarms.

Some council members seemed interested in the idea. Councilman Dan Marvin asked Casady to get statistics on Lincoln and Omaha’s alarms, saying, “if we were going to change the ordinance, the purpose would be to cut down on false alarms.”

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.