Rio Dell Municipal Code Art. III False Alarms, Alarm Standards And Duties

(1) It shall be unlawful for any person to use, operate, or maintain an alarm system within the City of Rio Dell that emits excessive false alarms.

(2) It shall be unlawful for any person who operates, manages, maintains, or uses the premises on which an alarm system is located to permit the alarm system to emit excessive false alarms.

(3) The number of false alarms to be considered "excessive" as described in subsections (1) and (2) of this section is any false alarm in excess of six false alarms within any six-month period. Any alarm system, either silent or audible, that emits more than six false alarms within any six-month period shall be deemed an "immediate safety hazard" and by recommendation of the Rio Dell Police Department the alarm permit shall be revoked.

(4) Whenever any alarm activation occurs because of apparent or suspected alarm malfunction, the alarm user shall arrange for an alarm system inspection by a licensed alarm business.

(5) The Rio Dell Police Department may require an alarm user's permit holder to submit a report within 10 days of request, describing the action taken to discover and eliminate the cause or causes of false alarms. Failure to submit such a report within 10 days of request shall be cause for revocation of the permit. If the alarm system is not repaired satisfactorily in the opinion of the Rio Dell Police Department or its agent, then the Rio Dell Police Department may order deactivation of the permit holder's alarm system until the alarm system is properly repaired.

(Ord. 402, 2024)

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, install or operate any alarm system for use within the City that does not meet the minimum standards as prescribed as follows:

(1) Audible Alarms.

(a) All audible alarm systems shall have a sign or notice posted on or near the system, visible from the exterior, with the name and telephone number of the person responsible for the service and maintenance of the system. The notice shall be conspicuously posted and readable from ground level.

(b) All audible alarms shall be equipped with a device that will deactivate the alarm system not more than 10 minutes after activation. It is unlawful for an alarm user maintaining an audible alarm system to cause, permit, suffer, or allow such system to ring for a period in excess of one hour after notification of the alarm activation or after efforts of notification have been made of such conduct and shall constitute grounds for revocation of the permit. In addition, should an alarm fail to be silenced within the time limits prescribed in this chapter, the Rio Dell Police Department shall have the authority to hire an alarm agent to silence the alarm. All costs and expenses incurred by the City in hiring an alarm agent to silence the alarm, costs incurred from damage to the alarm site or vehicle as a result of silencing the alarm, and costs incurred to obtain materials and security personnel to resecure the alarm site shall be borne by the permittee or owner.

(c) Any alarm system that has an automatic shutoff with a rearming phase must be able to distinguish between an open and closed circuit; and, if the circuit is open, will not rearm.

(d) No audible alarm shall be installed, maintained or activated which emits the sound of a siren similar to those utilized on emergency vehicles or for civil defense disaster warnings.

(2) Alarms.

(a) No alarms shall have an automatic dialing system as defined in this chapter. This chapter does not apply to alarm devices that relay a digitally coded signal to the alarm company.

(b) All alarm systems shall have a standby backup power supply which will automatically assume operation of the alarm system should any interruption occur in the power to the system. The transfer of power from the primary source to the backup source must occur in a manner that does not activate the alarm. Backup power supply must be capable of at least 12 hours of operation.

(c) All silent burglar alarm systems installed after the effective date of this chapter shall have a pre-alert or pre-alarm unit allowing the user to reset the system if activated in error before the system goes into full alarm activation. This section does not apply to banks, savings and loans, and other high-risk businesses as determined by the Rio Dell Police Department.

(d) An alarm user shall maintain at each alarm site a set of written operating instructions for each alarm system.

(e) Homeowners shall test systems in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and shall have every household fire alarm system having a control panel tested by a qualified service technician every three years.

(3) The Rio Dell Police Department reserves the right to inspect all alarm systems after giving 48-hour advance warning to the permittee to ensure that the alarm standards have been met.

(Ord. 402, 2024)

(1) An alarm company responsible for monitoring services shall make two attempts to contact user or users of the alarm system prior to requesting law enforcement response.

(a) Communicate any available information regarding specifics of the alarm event.

(b) Communicate a cancellation to the law enforcement communications center as soon as possible following a determination that a response is unnecessary.

(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in, conduct, or carry on any alarm/monitoring business within the City unless said person has first registered the intention to engage in such alarm business with the City, giving the City such information as it may require, and has displayed to the City a current valid City business license and a permit issued by the State of California, where State law requires such a permit or license.

(3) Any person engaging in, conducting, or carrying on any alarm/monitoring business within the City shall notify each alarm owner of the permit and false alarm process upon the request of installation of an alarm system and verify said notification in writing has been signed by the alarm user. Violation of said requirement shall be considered a violation of this chapter and subject to a fine for each occurrence. (See the City of Rio Dell's Master Fee Schedule.)

(Ord. 402, 2024)