Plano alarm permit and false alarm fees
Plano charges $200 for a false robbery alarm past the second one, four times what a burglar alarm costs at the same point. If your staff can reach a hold-up button by accident, that is where the money goes.
Checked against the city's published material on 12 September 2026. Ordinances change. Confirm anything you are about to act on with the city.
What it costs
| Annual permit, commercial | $100 |
| Annual permit, residential | $50 |
| Free false alarms per 12 months | 3 |
| 4th and 5th false alarm | $50 |
| 6th and 7th false alarm | $75 |
| 8th and every one after false alarm | $100 |
The part that catches people
Robbery alarms. Two free, then $200 for each one after that. This is the steepest single false alarm charge in the metroplex.
Panic alarms. Two free, then $75 for each one after that.
Two keyholders. A commercial permit application has to name two people who will reach the site within 30 minutes when police or fire call them.
Why the numbers look familiar
Every city in this comparison lands on the same three figures because Texas caps them. Local Government Code section 214.197 sets the ceiling a large municipality may charge for a false alarm: $50, then $75, then $100 as the count climbs. Cities set their own permit fees and their own tier boundaries underneath that ceiling, which is where they actually differ.
Compare all seven cities side by side.
Source
Plano Code of Ordinances Chapter 11, Article VI, Alarm Systems. City page. City of Plano alarm permits office.
Paying into the top tier is a symptom, not a cost line. A site sitting at $100 an alarm has a call list, a contract or a panel that nobody has looked at in years. We review the paper and tell you which of the three is doing it. We do not install, service or monitor anything.