DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - False alarm calls, in small doses can be an easy thing to bypass. However, the city of Decatur receives over 3,000 a year, making a huge impact on the fire and police department resources. 

"Those false alarm calls do have an impact on others in the community," said Deputy Chief Shane Brandel, with the Decatur Police Department. "If we're not able to respond to other calls of service that takes away our ability to properly serve our community."

Deputy Chief Brandel told WAND that the police department received over 2,000 false alarm calls in 2018, a number significantly higher than 2017. 

"It's more of a resource allocation issue for us," said Brandel. "When we handle false alarms, we'll have one or two officers who will be on a call and they're spending their time handling a call that is false." 

The Decatur Fire Department also told WAND that false alarm calls can have a significant impact on how quickly they can respond to actual emergencies throughout the city. 

"That becomes a problem when you have limited resources and a couple of calls coming in all at one time and one of those calls is a false alarm call," explained Fire Chief  Jeff Abbott. 

However, both the Fire and Police Department don't want to discourage people from calling. 

"We're here to help," said Chief Abbott. "We just want people to be responsible and know the impact that false alarm calls can have on the entire community." Â