If you operate, maintain or own a monitored or audible alarm in the Austin Full Purpose jurisdiction, the City of Austin requires a permit for each alarmed location, and you must apply before you switch the alarm on. Under the City’s fee schedule, a permit costs $50 to $250 for 12 months, depending on its type:
| Permit | Who needs it | Fee for 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | A residence, including an apartment tenant with an alarm in the unit | $50 |
| Commercial | A commercial space, including condominium common areas | $110 |
| Principal | An apartment complex’s non-residential areas, as one alarm site | $250 |
The City’s principal permits replaced master permits on 1 October 2024.
How to Apply and Renew
- Portal: Apply, renew and pay through the City’s online Alarm Administration Portal or its web form.
- Activation: The City says the permit is not active until you pay its fee, with any unpaid response fees paid first.
- Renewal: The City sends a renewal notice 30 days before the permit expires.
- Changes: The City requires a new permit for a new site address, occupant or business name.
- Questions: Call 3-1-1 or email dsdalarm@austintexas.gov.
If Your Property Relies on Cameras
The City defines an alarm system as equipment that emits, transmits or relays a signal intended to summon the police by direct or indirect means. If your property relies on cameras rather than an alarm, ask the City’s Alarm Administration team whether a permit applies.
Sources: City of Austin, Alarm Administration; City of Austin Development Services, Emergency Response/Assistance fee schedule (effective 1 October 2024, updated 27 February 2025); both accessed 12 October 2026.
Your property’s first three false burglary alarms in 12 months cost nothing, and each one after that costs $50, $75 or $100 depending on the count, according to the City of Austin’s fee schedule. Under the same schedule, false panic or robbery alarms are free twice in 12 months and then cost $100 each.
Add a false alarm at a time, or pick a number, to see the year add up.
Running cost$0
| False alarm in 12 months | Burglary | Panic or robbery |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-2nd | No charge | No charge |
| 3rd | No charge | $100 |
| 4th-5th | $50 each | $100 each |
| 6th-7th | $75 each | $100 each |
| 8th and on | $100 each | $100 each |
Without a permit: the City charges $220 for each police response to a location without a permit, plus Class C misdemeanor charges with a fine of $75 for the first occurrence and $100 for the second and subsequent ones, according to its Alarm Administration page.
Appeals and Late Payment
Only permitted users can appeal a false-alarm fee, within 10 days of the notice’s mailing date, according to the same page. The City does not grant appeals for causes including improper monitoring by the alarm business, faulty equipment, pets and caretakers. The fee schedule adds a $5 late payment fee.
Sources: City of Austin Development Services, Emergency Response/Assistance fee schedule (effective 1 October 2024, updated 27 February 2025), accessed 12 October 2026; City of Austin, Alarm Administration, accessed 12 October 2026.
For a trespass in progress while neither you nor your agent is on site, APD General Order 437.2.7 lets officers arrest the person when all three of these conditions are met:
- Authorization letter: a letter from you or your agent authorizing APD is on file.
- Incident report: an APD incident report documenting that authorization is verified before the arrest.
- Notice: the person previously received a criminal trespass notice under Texas Penal Code section 30.05.
Other parts of the order cover other situations, such as a trespass that has just occurred (437.2.2, described below), and no arrest is guaranteed.
APD generally treats a criminal trespass notice as valid for a year; the posted signs the letter itself needs are among the form’s terms. Where a posted sign is used, the order says it should state “No Trespassing,” and it may allow certain people to enter, such as tenants, customers or patients. APD makes no arrest when the conditions of a posted sign single out a specific class group, such as transients, homeless people or a minority group.
APD’s own authorization letter form is PD0272, the Authorization Letter for Criminal Trespass Arrest, signed by the owner or manager. In the copy APD distributes through its district representatives, the form sets out the following:
- Signer: the owner or manager states their authority to control entrance to the property, gives date of birth and driver’s license or ID number, attaches a copy of the license and agrees to assist in prosecution.
- Signs: the letter is not effective unless “No Trespassing” signs, which serve as written notice under section 30.05, are posted at all times at every point of entry.
- Term: one year from its date, renewable annually; you may withdraw it at any time.
- Change of ownership or management: the letter ends automatically on a change of ownership or management of the property.
- Notary: the form has no notary block.
Sources: Austin Police Department General Orders, Order 437 Criminal Trespass (edition of 18 September 2026), accessed 22 October 2026; APD Authorization Letter for Criminal Trespass Arrest (PD0272), copy distributed via district representatives, accessed 12 October 2026.
Under APD General Order 437.2.1(a) (edition of 18 September 2026), officers making a warrantless trespass arrest under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 14.01(b) do not have to witness the offense themselves. To establish probable cause, they can rely on the totality of the circumstances, including their own first-hand inspection of physical or video evidence; trustworthy or reliable information from a credible person, including probative video of a suspect committing the offense; or information from fellow officers.
For a trespass that has just occurred, General Order 437.2.2 lets an officer arrest a person still nearby when the officer can develop reliable and credible evidence, “including video and/or witness statements”, sufficient to reasonably believe that person committed the earlier criminal trespass, and confirms the person had previously received notice that entry was forbidden, or notice to depart and failed to leave.
Video does not guarantee an arrest under General Order 437: the order’s other conditions still apply, such as the three in General Order 437.2.7 set out above for a trespass in progress while neither you nor your agent is on site.
Source: Austin Police Department General Orders, Order 437 Criminal Trespass, sections 437.2.1(a) and 437.2.2 (edition of 18 September 2026), accessed 22 October 2026.
Take one example night at an Austin property, with “No Trespassing” signs posted and your letter on file, but no cameras, nobody from your property on site, and nobody watching remotely or able to call APD. Officers still need evidence: for a trespass still in progress, APD General Order 437.2.7 lets them arrest in your absence when all three of its conditions set out above are met, and a trespass that has just occurred falls under 437.2.2, described above. With Blinkless Live Remote Guarding, when a camera picks up a potential threat, a trained Blinkless agent goes live on the feed; if the agent judges the person an intruder, we order them to leave over your speakers with a live voice-down and send you instant alerts with footage.
| At night, with nobody on site | Signs and the Letter on File | Blinkless Live Remote Guarding |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees the person | Nobody from your property | A trained Blinkless agent, live on your camera feed when a potential threat is detected |
| What the person hears | No one warns them; under APD form PD0272, “No Trespassing” signs posted at all times at all points of entry serve as written notice under Texas Penal Code section 30.05, and the letter is not effective without them (the form’s other terms are set out above) | A live voice-down over your speakers ordering them to leave, if the agent judges them an intruder |
| What you have afterwards | No footage: this example assumes no cameras | An incident report with supporting footage, plus recorded footage you can access online from approved devices |
| Who contacts APD | Nobody from your property. | We notify authorities when required. |
Whether an arrest follows, and whether a warning over your speakers counts as the notice APD General Order 437 requires, is for APD and the law to decide.
In an emergency, APD General Order 407.7(h) lets the incident commander of the Department Operations Center limit the types of service APD responds to, with “not responding to alarm calls” as its example.
Sources: APD, Authorization Letter for Criminal Trespass Arrest (PD0272), copy distributed by APD district representatives, accessed 12 October 2026; APD General Orders 407.7(h) and 437 (edition of 18 September 2026), accessed 22 October 2026.
The Austin permit, fee and trespass rules on this page come from the City’s and APD’s own documents, each accessed 12 October 2026 unless noted below:
- Permits, false alarms and appeals: City of Austin, Alarm Administration, including permit types, the false-alarm definition, unpermitted charges and the online portal.
- Permit and false-alarm fees: City of Austin Development Services, Emergency Response/Assistance fee schedule, effective 1 October 2024, updated 27 February 2025.
- Authorizing APD to arrest trespassers: APD form PD0272, Authorization Letter for Criminal Trespass Arrest, in the copy distributed through APD district representatives in 2025.
- Arrest conditions and alarm response: APD General Orders issued 18 September 2026, which the City of Austin links as current, accessed 22 October 2026: Order 437 (Criminal Trespass) and Order 407.7 (limits on APD’s response during an emergency).
Austin also has an entry in our city-by-city alarm permit and false-alarm fee database and in our trespass letter database.
This is general information, not legal advice.
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Send the request form, and a Blinkless security specialist will be in touch shortly to understand your property, risks and priorities. We then assess your property remotely from satellite imagery and your existing cameras, so no site visit is required.
You receive a written security plan that sets out four things:
- Areas: Which parts of your property need monitoring.
- Hours: When security coverage is needed.
- Response: How intruders and break-in attempts would be handled.
- Notifications: Who receives security alerts.
The plan is yours to keep, whether you hire Blinkless or not.