Home Security in Memphis: Burglary Rates, Permit Rules, and Costs

Burglary and property crime in Memphis

The Memphis Police Department reports to the FBI through NIBRS. Summing the monthly counts in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, MPD reported 5,624 burglaries in 2024, down steeply from 6,850 in 2023, an 18 percent drop. Total property crime (burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson) fell from 53,456 offenses in 2023 to 42,718 in 2024, a 20 percent drop.

Even after that improvement, the level remains very high. Against the population the FBI lists for the agency, 2024 burglary works out to roughly 920 per 100,000 residents versus a national figure of roughly 232 in the same data, close to four times the national rate. Total property crime runs roughly 7,000 per 100,000 versus roughly 1,770 nationally, among the highest of the large cities covered in this series. As elsewhere, NIBRS burglary counts include commercial break-ins alongside residential ones, and the figures are as submitted by MPD to the FBI and can be revised later. In Memphis, home security is less a lifestyle purchase and more basic risk management.

Memphis alarm permits: register first, and know the fee ladder

Memphis regulates alarms through the Metro Alarm Office under a revised ordinance (No. 5729) effective January 1, 2020. Permits are required for all alarm systems in the city, and the city says a permit should be in place before an alarm monitoring service is activated. A notable change under the current rules: customers must register their own alarms rather than assuming the alarm company will do it, and renewal is the customer's responsibility too. Some companies still permit on a customer's behalf, but the city explicitly warns not to assume that.

The published costs, as of August 2026: new permits are $30 for residents and $60 for commercial businesses; renewals are $10 for residents and $25 for commercial. Permits expire annually on June 30, with renewal reminders mailed. Let it lapse and your system counts as unpermitted, which triggers extra fees.

The false alarm math: permitted customers get one free police false alarm and one free fire false alarm per permit year. The second and every subsequent false alarm brings a fine plus a cost-of-service charge, and the city publishes the cost of service as $90 per call for a police false alarm and $250 per call for a fire false alarm. Unpermitted customers get no free false alarm and pay an additional $20 administrative fee on top of cost-of-service charges. Disputes can be filed with the Metro Alarm Office within 30 business days of a false alarm notice. For context on why the city polices this hard: in 2020, 90 percent of all alarms recorded in Memphis were false.

What home security costs in Memphis

Add the permit ($30 in year one, $10 a year after for residents) to nationally priced equipment and monitoring. As of August 2026, SimpliSafe's published plans run from 33 cents a day for self monitoring with camera recordings (about $10 a month) to 76 cents a day for Standard professional monitoring (about $23 a month), $1.10 a day for Core (about $33 a month), and $1.66 to $2.66 a day for the Pro tiers, and other national providers ladder similarly. Home security cost per month breaks down the whole annual stack, and cheapest professional monitoring ranks the budget monitored options by published pricing.

Given Memphis's burglary level, professional monitoring has a stronger-than-average case here, but it is still a real monthly commitment layered on the permit and potential false alarm fees; is professional monitoring worth it lays out the decision honestly. If you want the monitored route, our short questionnaire at /quote fetches real quotes from professional monitoring providers for your address, and you can confirm with each provider who files the Memphis permit, you or them.

A sensible setup for a Memphis home

At nearly four times the national burglary rate, spend on the layers in order of proven return. First, physical hardening: quality deadbolts, reinforced strike plates and door frames, ground-floor window locks, and no hidden spare keys. Second, visible deterrence, which matters more where break-in attempts are frequent; do security signs deter burglars covers what the evidence supports. Third, detection on every ground-floor opening plus a loud siren, with cameras on the front and rear approaches.

Because Memphis charges $90 per false police dispatch after your single free one, false alarm hygiene is worth real attention: train every user, replace sensor batteries on schedule, and use pet-friendly motion sensors if you have animals. If a monthly fee is not in the budget, a self-monitored system avoids both the monitoring bill and most false-dispatch exposure; best self-monitored systems with no monthly fee covers the options, and home security for renters adapts the plan for Memphis's large rental stock.