{"id":169174,"date":"2026-02-25T21:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169174\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:35:08","slug":"martin-county-cracks-down-on-false-alarms-with-new-fines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169174\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County cracks down on false alarms with new fines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Martin%20County\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Martin County<\/a> commissioners have unanimously approved a new ordinance aimed at curbing the staggering number of false alarms that drain law enforcement resources. <\/p>\n<p>The move comes as the <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Martin%20County%20sheriff&#039;s%20office\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> reveals that some local properties have triggered thousands of unnecessary calls, prompting a shift in how these incidents are penalized and appealed.<\/p>\n<p>The primary change to<a href=\"https:\/\/library.municode.com\/fl\/martin_county\/codes\/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH111MIPR_ART5FAALRE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Chapter 111, Article 5 <\/a>of the Martin County Code allows individuals or businesses cited for a false alarm to formally appeal the citation. To facilitate this, the commission established a $50 administrative fee for filing an appeal, which will help cover the costs of a magistrate.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/florida-news-proposed-slaughterhouse-near-lake-okeechobee-raises-environmental-concerns-in-martin-county-grassfed-animal-processing-facility-blood-grease-ammonia-bacteria-south-florida-water-management-district-and-the-florida-department-of-environmental\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Proposed slaughterhouse near Lake Okeechobee raises environmental concerns in Martin Co.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Sheriff%20John%20Budensiek\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheriff John Budensiek<\/a> emphasized the necessity of the change, noting that the department has previously struggled to assess fines effectively. He highlighted a single location in Indiantown that recorded over 2,000 false alarms, a figure he says undermines the urgency of deputy responses.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want alarms to be serious when deputies respond,&#8221; the Sheriff told commissioners. While he noted that the vast majority of businesses in the county are diligent about maintenance, the new fine structure\u2014which starts at $50 and increases with subsequent offenses\u2014is designed to target chronic offenders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Martin County commissioners have unanimously approved a new ordinance aimed at curbing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-169174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}