Chapter 9.44 — ALARM SYSTEMS

The city finds and determines that the regulation of alarm systems and the control of false alarms is necessary to promote the health, welfare, and safety of the people in that some users have alarm systems which either mechanically malfunction or are not operated properly by their users, causing an increase in false alarm reports, thereby resulting in unnecessary costs and expense to the city, and constituting a hazard to the safety of police officers emergency personnel, and the public in general.

(Ord. 218 §1, 1984)

For the purpose of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows:

A.

"Alarm agent" means any person who is employed by an alarm business, either directly or indirectly, whose duties include any of the following: selling, maintaining, leasing, servicing, repairing, altering, monitoring, replacing, moving, or installing on or in any building, structure, or facility any alarm system within the city. Exemption: The provisions of this subsection shall not include a person who engages in the manufacture or sale of an alarm system from a fixed location and who neither visits the location where the alarm system is to be installed, nor designs the scheme for the physical location and installation of the alarm system in a specific location.

B.

"Alarm business" means the business by any individual, partnership, corporation, or other entity of selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, monitoring, altering, replacing, moving, or installing any alarm

system or causing to be sold, leased, maintained, serviced, repaired, altered, replaced, moved, or installed any alarm system in or on any building, structure, or facility within the city.

C.

"Alarm device" means any mechanical or electrical device which transmits a prerecorded message or other signal by telephone, telephone line, or other means to a central alarm station or telephone answering service or directly to a police or fire department or other emergency dispatch room or which produces an audible or visible signal designed to notify persons within audible or visual range of the signal.

For the purposes of this chapter, such devices shall include devices for the detection of an unauthorized entry into a building, structure, or facility or for alerting others of the commission of an unlawful act within a building, structure, or facility. Such devices shall also include devices designed or used for the detection of smoke and/or heat, and/or any portion thereof.

D.

"Alarm system" means all alarm devices and alarm installations located totally within the city and owned, operated, or maintained by a single individual, business, firm, corporation, government agency, or other commercial entity, or any combination thereof.

E.

"Audible alarm" means any mechanical or electrical device designed for the detection of an unauthorized entry on the land, building, structure, and/or facility of an alarm owner, or any mechanical or electrical device designed for the detection of smoke and/or heat and/or water flow therein, which generates an audible sound outdoors when it is actuated.

F.

"False alarm" means any signal or message produced, or caused to be produced, by an alarm system to which the police department, fire department, or supplier of emergency services responds, which signal or message is due to the negligence of the owner or user of the alarm system or alarm device or due to a malfunction in the alarm device or alarm system.

"False alarm" includes signals and messages from alarm systems received by telephone answering services and central alarm stations which are relayed to the supplier of emergency services.

G.

"Supplier of emergency services" means any governmental agency supplying police, fire, medical, or other emergency services, including, but not limited to, the police department and fire department of the city.

(Ord. 218 §2, 1984)

The chief of police may prescribe minimum standards and regulations for the construction and maintenance of all alarm systems installed within the city. All alarm systems to be installed by commercial

businesses shall be installed, monitored, and maintained by licensed personnel pursuant to the provisions of Section 7521 of the Business and Professions Code of the state and all other related federal and state provisions. The chief of police may require the inspection and approval of all police alarm systems installed within the city.

(Ord. 218 §3, 1984)

It shall be unlawful for anyone to activate any police or fire alarm system for the purpose of summoning police or fire department personnel, except in the event of what is reasonably believed to be an unlawful act likely to produce great bodily harm, and/or an unauthorized entry into any building, structure, or facility, and/or a fire emergency.

(Ord. 218 §4, 1984)

A.

Any user of an alarm system which produces three or more false alarms within a ninety-day period shall pay a fee to the city at the following rates:

First false alarm: officer shall warn of the provisions of this chapter;

Second false alarm: no fee; letter of warning shall be issued;

Third false alarm within ninety days of the first alarm: a fee of fifty dollars shall be charged; and

Fourth false alarm within ninety days of the first alarm: a fee of one hundred dollars shall be charged.

Such fees shall be due and payable within fifteen days after receiving notices of violations.

B.

In the event the supplier of emergency services receives five or more false alarms from one alarm device or alarm system within a ninety-day period, the police department shall notify the user in writing within fifteen days after the last false alarm and shall disconnect or cause to be disconnected such alarm system and alarm device for a period of not less than ninety days.

C.

In the event five or more false alarms are relayed to a supplier of emergency services within a ninety-day period by a telephone answering system or a central alarm station arising out of any single alarm device or alarm system, the user and the telephone answering service of the owner of the central alarm system shall be jointly and severally liable in the sum of one hundred dollars for the fifth occurrence and each occurrence thereafter. With the consent of the police department, such fee, or any part thereof, may be waived if the user of the alarm system or alarm device and the telephone answering service or the owner of the central alarm station voluntarily disconnect and render inoperative the alarm system or alarm device for a period of not less than ninety days.

(Ord. 218 §5, 1984)

A.

All alarm devices and alarm installations within any alarm system shall be subject to disconnection in the event that reimbursement costs attributed to false alarms from elements of such system remain unpaid for a period of thirty days. The disconnection may be ordered by any supplier of emergency services with unpaid reimbursement costs upon fifteen days' written notice.

B.

Any alarm system ordered disconnected pursuant to subsection A of this section shall not be reconnected until all outstanding reimbursement costs have been paid in full.

(Ord. 218 §6, 1984)

Upon written notification by the police department, any telephone answering service or central alarm system owner shall immediately disconnect or render inoperative the alarm system or alarm device when any of the following has occurred:

A.

The alarm system or alarm device has produced five or more false alarms within any ninety-day period; or

B.

The user of an alarm system or alarm device has failed to pay any charge pursuant to this chapter.

(Ord. 218 §7, 1984)

The determination of any false alarm may be appealed by the alarm user by a written request to the city clerk of the city, addressed to the Sutter Creek City Clerk, who shall, upon receipt of such written request, set a hearing at the next regular meeting of the city council. The city council shall notify in writing the appellant of any decision rendered by the city council within ten days of the making of said decision by the city council.

(Ord. 218 §8, 1984)

Upon the suspension, revocation, or disconnection of any alarm system under this chapter, the city shall be relieved of all responsibility of responding to any alarm other than the notification by an individual in direct contact with the police department or fire department of any emergency situation on the alarm user's property.

(Ord. 218 §9, 1984)