Home Security in Orlando: Burglary Data, Alarm Registration, and Costs

Burglary in Orlando, from OPD's own case data

Most city pages on this site use the FBI's Crime Data Explorer. For Orlando's 2023 to 2025 figures that is not possible: the explorer shows zero offenses for the Orlando Police Department (ORI FL0480400) for every month from 2023 through 2025 and lists the department's FBI reporting as starting on January 1, 2026, so the zeros mean no data rather than no crime. The figures below come instead from the case data behind OPD's public Crime and Cases Dashboard, which labels each case with a case type and splits burglary into home, business and vehicle categories.

Residential burglary cases fell 29 percent from 2023 to 2024 and another 20 percent in 2025. The split matters: vehicle break-ins made up about 61 percent of all burglary-labeled cases in 2024, so a single burglary total for Orlando would mostly measure car break-ins, not homes. OPD's definitions for the three types are breaking into a home, a business, or a vehicle.

Read these counts with their limits. They are counts of cases by OPD case type, not FBI NIBRS offense counts, so they are not comparable with the FBI-based figures on other city pages, and no per-capita or national comparison is offered here. OPD says the dashboard data covers a five-year window, is updated daily, excludes some incident types that state law keeps confidential and some records that could not be geo-verified, and is expected to be within a 96.5 percent accuracy rate of total data. Years here are assigned by the year in the OPD case number.

Orlando alarm registration and false alarm fines

The City of Orlando regulates alarms through Chapter 41 of its City Code, administered by OPD's False Alarm Reduction Program. The ordinance requires every active alarm system in city limits to be registered with OPD. There is no fee to register, registrations must be renewed annually, and each location needs its own registration. Registration is online; you receive a five-digit registration number by email and then pass it to your alarm company. Addresses in unincorporated Orange County are not covered; the Orange County Sheriff's Office runs its own alarm registration.

False alarm fines, as of October 2026, counted within 12 months of the first false alarm:

OPD responds to alarm notifications whether or not the system is registered. The $50 fine for an unregistered alarm is waived if you submit a completed registration within 10 days of the first dispatch. The code also fines an alarm user or listed responder $50 for refusing a police request to come to the site (with waivers, for example when the responder is more than 50 miles away), requires the registration application to list at least two responders, and fines anyone using an automatic voice dialer $150, as of October 2026. Separately, alarm installation companies need a city low-voltage permit for each new system they install, but wireless alarm systems are excluded from that permit requirement.

What Orlando's rules mean for monitoring

Registration is the first step of setting up monitoring in Orlando: register, get the five-digit number, and give it to the alarm company, as the city's own registration steps describe. Registration is required by the City Code and unregistered alarms are fined $50 per dispatch, though OPD responds either way. The city says registration prevents delays from incomplete or inaccurate addresses, flags hazards at the location, and gives officers emergency contacts.

Florida law governs what happens before police are called. Under section 489.529 of the Florida Statutes, a monitoring company must try to confirm a burglary alarm with the owner, occupant or a designee by call, text or other electronic means before requesting dispatch, and must try a second time if the first attempt fails, unless the system has a properly working visual or audio sensor that lets the monitoring center verify the alarm. OPD's own advice for an accidental trip is to contact your alarm company right away, or stay home until it reaches you, and give the correct code so no officer is sent. Video verification explained covers how camera-verified alarms fit this rule.

What home security costs in Orlando

City fines can be zero: registration is free and a residential system gets three false alarms within 12 months of the first one before the first $50 fine. Those three still carry an obligation: under section 41.10 of the City Code, each one brings a warning letter requiring the system to be serviced and repaired, with a service report due to the city's Alarm Coordinator within 30 days. The fines that do apply are listed above.

Equipment and monitoring are priced nationally. Home security cost per month breaks down the full annual cost, and cheapest professional monitoring compares the budget monitored options by published pricing. If you want quotes for monitored service at an Orlando address, our questionnaire at /quote fetches them from monitoring providers.

A sensible setup for an Orlando home

Start with deadbolts, reinforced strike plates, locks on ground-floor windows and sliding doors, and lighting at entries, then sensors on every ground-floor opening and a siren that can be heard outside.

OPD's published false alarm tips include: check for lizards, spiders and other critters that can cross a motion detector lens, keep air conditioner drafts, fans and balloons away from motion sensors, leave a pet path, check door and window contacts every six months, and check batteries after power outages. Pet-friendly motion sensors covers sensor choices for homes with animals.

Given that vehicle break-ins are the largest burglary category in OPD's data, remember that a home alarm does not cover a car in the driveway. Locking vehicles and keeping valuables out of sight matters, and driveway security cameras covers camera options for that space.

Nearby cities

The same breakdown of burglary data and local alarm rules for the nearest cities we cover: home security in Jacksonville, home security in Miami and home security in Atlanta.

For a national frame of reference, compare burglary rates in the 15 largest US cities, built from FBI agency data.