Town of Rocky Hill, CT ALARM SYSTEMS

No person except a public utility engaged in the business of providing communications services and facilities shall use or operate, attempt to use or operate, or cause to be used or operated, or arrange, adjust, program or otherwise provide or install any device or combination of devices that will, upon activation, either mechanically, electronically or by other automatic means, initiate an intrastate call and deliver a recorded message to any telephone number assigned to any department of the Town of Rocky Hill by a public telephone company without prior approval of the appropriate Town department.

§ 73-2 Definitions.

As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:

TELEPHONE NUMBER: Includes the 563-1411 emergency number and any additional numbers assigned by a public utility company engaged in the business or other system to connect the subscriber to such primary number when the primary telephone number is in use.

§ 73-3 Application; provisions relating to false alarms and testing procedures.

[Amended 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

Henceforth, any person who desires to have a private secondary telephone line terminate in a location in any Town department shall submit an application, in writing, to the Town. Such application shall contain specific provisions relating to false alarms and testing procedures. The provisions of §§ 73-11 and 73-14 of Article II shall apply to false alarms and testing procedures.

§ 73-4 Approval of application; additional requirements.

A. The Police Department, acting by its Chief, in coordination with the department head concerned, shall receive, issue and control such applications. It shall approve such applications if it finds:

(1) They are necessary to the proper and efficient handling of emergency calls to that specific agency.

(2) The termination of such a telephone line shall constitute no hindrance to regular Town activities.

B. In the event that the applicant is in the business of installing or selling or leasing said alarm systems, there shall be additional requirements as follows:

(1) The applicant seeking the termination agrees that no messages will be telephoned on said lines except by an agent of his with access to customer files and the means to provide access to the premises.

(2) The applicant seeking the termination maintains adequate equipment and work force to repair, maintain and otherwise service alarms sold or leased by him.

(3) Adequate procedures to test and prevent false alarms as determined by the department head concerned are provided.

§ 73-5 Approval of certain other equipment required.

No person shall place any monitoring panels and annunciation or receiving equipment other than private line telephones as provided herein in any Town of Rocky Hill building without prior approval of the appropriate Town agency.

§ 73-6 Penalties for offenses.

[Amended 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

Any person, firm or corporation violating this article shall be fined $25 per day for each violation with each day constituting a separate offense.

Article II: Burglar, Holdup and Fire Alarm Systems

[Adopted 8-6-1979 by Ord. No. 81-79]

§ 73-7 Purpose.

The purpose of this article is to provide minimum standards and regulations applicable to burglar, holdup alarm and fire alarm systems and alarm users as defined in this article and to encourage the installation of protective alarm systems in all dwellings, commercial, industrial and agricultural structures.

§ 73-8 Definitions and word usage.

A. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words used in the plural number include the singular number and words in the singular number include the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.

B. For the purpose of this article, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein.

ALARM AGENT: Any person employed by an alarm business whose duties include the altering, installing, maintaining, moving, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing of, responding to or causing others to respond to an alarm device.

ALARM BUSINESS: Any business operated by a person for a profit which engages in the activity of altering, installing, leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing or responding to a burglar, holdup alarm system or fire alarm system or which causes any of these activities to take place.

ALARM SYSTEM: An assembly of equipment and devices (or a single device, such as a solid-state unit, which plugs directly into a one-hundred-ten-volt AC line) arranged to signal the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention and to which police or fire are expected to respond. In this article, the term "alarm system" shall include the terms "automatic holdup alarm systems," "burglar alarm systems," "holdup alarm systems" and "manual holdup alarm systems" and "fire alarm systems" as those terms are hereinafter defined. Alarm systems which monitor temperature, humidity or any other condition not directly related to the detection of an unauthorized intrusion into a premises or an attempted robbery or a fire or smoke condition at a premises are specifically excluded from the provision of this article.

ALARM USER: Any person on whose premises an alarm system is maintained within the Town of Rocky Hill except for alarm systems on motor vehicles or proprietary systems. If, however, an alarm system on a motor vehicle is connected with an alarm system at a premises (other than a proprietary system), the person using such a system is an alarm user. Also excluded from this definition and from the coverage of this article are persons who use alarm systems to alert or signal persons within the premises in which the alarm system is located of an attempted unauthorized intrusion or holdup attempt. If such a system, however, employs an audible signal emitting sounds or a flashing light or beacon designed to signal persons outside the premises, such system shall be within the definition of an alarm system and shall be subject to this article.

ANNUNCIATOR: The instrumentation on an alarm console at the receiving terminal of a signal line which through both visual and audible signals shows when an alarm device at a particular location has been activated, or it may also indicate line trouble.

ANNUNCIATOR PANEL: The configuration on the dispatch console capable of receiving alarm signals.
[Added 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

ANSI: Stands for the American National Standards Institute.

ANSWERING SERVICE: Refers to a telephone answering service providing among its services the service of receiving on a continuous basis through trained employees emergency signals from alarm systems and thereafter immediately relaying the message by live voice to the communication center of the Rocky Hill Police Department.

AUTOMATIC HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEM: An alarm system in which the signal transmission is initiated by the action of the robber.

BURGLAR ALARM SYSTEM: Refers to an alarm system signaling an entry or attempted entry into the area protected by the system.

CENTRAL STATION: An office to which remote alarm and supervisory signaling devices are connected, where operators supervise the circuits and where guards are maintained continuously to investigate signals.

CENTRAL STATION EQUIPMENT: Refers to the signal receiving, recording or retransmitting equipment installed in the central station.

CENTRAL STATION SYSTEM: A system in which the operation of electrical protection circuits and devices are signaled automatically to, recorded in, maintained and supervised from a central station having trained operators and guards in attendance at all times.

CHIEF OF POLICE or POLICE CHIEF: The Chief of the Police Department of the Town of Rocky Hill, or his designated representative.
[Amended 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

COMMUNICATIONS CENTER: The dispatch operation of the Rocky Hill Police Department.
[Added 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

DIRECT CONNECT: An alarm system which has the capability of transmitting system signals to and receiving them at an agency maintained by the local government, for example, a police communication center.

DIRECT LINE: A telephone line leading directly from a central station to the communication center of the Rocky Hill Police Department that is for use only to report emergency signals on a person-to-person basis.

FALSE ALARM: The activation of an alarm system through mechanical failure, improper monitoring, malfunction, improper installation or the negligence of the subscriber of an alarm system or his employees or agents; which activation causes a direct or indirect receipt of the alarm message to any Town of Rocky Hill agencies or departments. Such terminology does not include, for example, alarms caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, earth quakes or other violent conditions. False fire alarms shall not mean alarms transmitted because of a water main break or similar causes that occur outside of the protected property. False alarms, as defined in this article, also do not include those alarms that are transmitted with criminal, malicious or mischievous intent.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83; 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92; 12-18-2000 by Ord. No. 199-00]

FIRE ALARM SYSTEM: Refers to a signal or message from a person or device indicating the existence of a fire or other emergency which requires Fire Department action.

FIRE CHIEF: The certified person designated as Fire Chief by the Town of Rocky Hill, or his designated representative.

FIRE DEPARTMENT: Those publicly supported companies authorized by the Town of Rocky Hill to provide fire protection services.

HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEM: Refers to an alarm system signaling a robbery or attempted robbery.

LOCAL ALARM SYSTEM: Refers to a signaling system which when activated causes an audible and/or visual signaling device to be activated in or on the premises within which the system is installed.

MANUAL HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEM: Refers to an alarm system in which the signal transmission is initiated by the direct action of the person attacked or by an observer of the attack.

MODIFIED CENTRAL STATION: An office to which remote alarm and supervisory signaling devices are connected, where operators supervise the circuits. Such modified central station is not listed by Underwriters' Laboratories.

PERSON: Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.

POLICE or POLICE DEPARTMENT: The publicly supported Police Department of the Town of Rocky Hill, or any authorized agent thereof.

PRIMARY TRUNK LINE: A telephone line leading directly into the communication center of the Rocky Hill Police Department that is for the purpose of handling emergency calls on a person-to-person basis and which is identified as such by a specific number included among the emergency numbers listed in the telephone directory issued by the telephone company and covering the service area within the Rocky Hill Police Department's jurisdiction.

REMOTE SIGNALING SYSTEM: An alarm signaling system which when activated by an alarm device transmits a signal from an alarm signaling device to a central location, other than the Rocky Hill Police Department, where appropriate action is taken to investigate and respond to the signal.

SIGNAL LINE: Refers to the transmission line through which the signal passes from one of the elements of the signal transmission to another.

SUBSCRIBER: A person who buys and/or leases or otherwise obtains an alarm signaling system and thereafter contracts with or hires an alarm business to monitor and/or service the alarm device.

TELEPHONE COMPANY: The utility that furnishes telephone services to the Town of Rocky Hill.

TOWN: The Town of Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

UL: Stands for Underwriters' Laboratories.

§ 73-9 Direct connections to Police Headquarters.

A. Upon the favorable recommendation of the Police Chief, alarms may be terminated in the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters.

[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83]

B. The alarm subscriber approved for a direct connection to the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters or the alarm business contracting for servicing the subscriber's alarm system shall be responsible for obtaining the leased telephone line between subscriber's premises and the alarm receiving equipment at the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters and for furnishing the appropriate interface equipment, if required, in order to provide an input signal which is compatible with the receiving equipment used to operate the standard annunciator panel.

§ 73-10 Equipment maintenance.

[Amended 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

Each subscriber, at his expense, is required to maintain all components of his alarm system in good working order at all times to ensure that the sensory mechanism used in connection with such device be adjusted to suppress false indications of holdups or intrusions or fire or smoke conditions so that the device will not be activated by impulses due to short flashes of light, wind, noises, vehicular noise or other forces unrelated to genuine alarms.

§ 73-11 Testing of equipment.

[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83]

No alarm system designed to transmit emergency messages directly to the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters shall be tested or demonstrated without first obtaining permission from the Police Chief or Fire Chief. Permission shall not be granted by the Police Chief or Fire Chief unless they are provided with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of two persons who may be contacted at any time to respond within 20 minutes of any Rocky Hill police call to a premises which is the subject of an alarm response. Failure of such persons to respond within said twenty-minute period shall be considered a failure to comply with the requirement of this article within the meaning of § 73-14 herein. Permission is not required to test or demonstrate alarm devices not transmitting emergency messages directly to the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters unless the messages are to be relayed to the Rocky Hill Police Headquarters.

§ 73-12 Notice of disruption of service.

When an alarm business service to its subscribers is disrupted for any reason by the alarm business, or the alarm business becomes aware of such disruption, it shall promptly notify its subscriber by telephone that protection is no longer being provided. If, however, the alarm business has written instructions from its subscriber not to make such notification by telephone during certain hours, the alarm business may comply with such instructions.

§ 73-13 Annunciator panel.

[Amended 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

A. There shall be only one annunciator panel, which shall meet the specifications established by Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc. and the requirements of the Chief of Police, installed in the communications control center. Such panel shall be installed and maintained by the alarm equipment supplier(s) at no cost to the Town of Rocky Hill.

B. The number of annunciators mounted in such panel shall be limited as the Chief of Police may deem practical and within the capacity of the police communications center to monitor adequately.

§ 73-14 Enforcement.

A. Enforcement and administration of this article shall be the function of the Chief of Police, except that the Fire Chief shall have jurisdiction over fire alarm systems and shall be accomplished as is provided in either or both of the following two subsections.

B. The Town of Rocky Hill shall set the following standards for alarm performance.

[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83; 12-18-2000 by Ord. No. 199-00]

(1) A maximum of two false alarms from any one protected property per calendar year shall be acceptable.

(2) After the second false alarm, the subscriber shall be notified in writing. Such notification shall require the alarm system to be inspected by the installing alarm company and the subscriber shall review alarm procedures with all employees. Also, written notification shall be made to the Police Chief or Fire Chief, as appropriate, indicating that the alarm problem has been corrected.

(3) In any one calendar year, upon receipt of the third false fire alarm from any one protected property of a subscriber, the Town of Rocky Hill shall charge a penalty of $50 for said third false alarm and for each subsequent offense, the Town of Rocky Hill shall charge a penalty of $75.

C. If the subscriber and/or alarm equipment supplier(s) fails to comply with any requirement of this article, the Chief of Police may terminate, in writing, the privilege of having equipment and indicators in the communications center in the Rocky Hill Police Department and may require removal of the same within three days from the receipt of said written notice, exclusive of Saturday, Sunday and holidays, at the expense of such subscriber and/or alarm equipment supplier(s). Failure to remove said equipment and indicators, as specified above, shall result in the Town's doing so at the expense of the person(s) so notified.

[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83; 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

D. Failure of any subscriber and/or alarm equipment supplier to comply with the requirements of a written notice of a violation of any provision hereof within three days of receipt of such notice, exclusive of Saturday, Sunday and holidays, shall also constitute an offense punishable by a fine not to exceed $100. Such notice shall continue in force and effect until full compliance with requirements stated therein, and each and every failure to comply with such notice within 24 hours after the three days allowed for compliance shall constitute a separate offense.

[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 103-83; 1-6-1992 by Ord. No. 171-92]

§ 73-15 Liability of Town.

The Town of Rocky Hill shall not be liable for any defects in operation of any signal line system, for any failure or neglect to respond appropriately upon receipt of an alarm from such a source, for any failure or neglect of any person in connection with the installation, operation, disconnection or removal of equipment, the transmission of alarm signals or the relaying of such signals or messages.