False alarms have a variety of causes, including employees simply forgetting to turn off the alarm before entering their office--as is the case with Radcliffe Yard alarm--or entering the wrong access code.

HUPD spokesperson Peggy A. McNamara says "99.9 percent of those alarms are employee alarm error, accidental, defective alarm or an unknown cause."

When Mung notices a pattern of repeated alarm calls, he speaks with the manager of the building, who then discusses it with the employees who work in the building.

"Only about five or six percent [of the alarm calls] are defective equipment," Mung says. "The other percent are employee errors."

"The last time I remember a real alarm was many, many, many years ago," McNamara says.

Police confirm that it has been many years since the alarms discovered any criminal activity. In the most recent case, an alarm on the basement tunnel doors of the Center for European Studies resulted in police discovering a breaking-and-entering in progress.

The sheer volume of alarms also poses a danger to police officers who are lulled into a false sense of security.

"Sometimes the officers get frustrated," McNamara says. "Sometimes in a situation, we may come across repetitive call syndrome."