[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council
of the Borough of Mars 12-30-1992 by Ord. No. 378. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
A.Â
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall
have the meanings indicated, unless a different meaning clearly appears
from the context:
- ACCIDENTAL FALSE ALARM
- Any false alarm which is not intentionally caused and which occurs when an actual intrusion, crime, fire or other emergency has not taken place.
- ALARM
- A communication to the Police, Fire or EMS Department indicating that a crime, fire or other emergency situation warranting immediate action by the Police, Fire or EMS Department has occurred or is occurring.
- ALARM DEVICE
- A device designed to automatically transmit an alarm by wire, telephone, radio signal or other means:
- (1)Â To the Butler Communications Center or to the Borough Police desk;
- (2)Â To a person who is instructed to notify the Butler Communications Center or the Borough Police desk of the alarm; or
- (3)Â To activate a bell or sounding device to be heard outside a building, which is intended to alert the police or others to the existence of a crime, fire or other emergency situation warranting action by emergency services.
- BOROUGH
- The Borough of Mars, Butler County, Pennsylvania.
- CENTRAL STATION SYSTEM
- A system, or group of systems, in which the operations of circuits and devices are signaled automatically to, recorded in, maintained, and supervised from an approved central station having competent and experienced observers and operators who shall, upon receipt of a signal, take such action as shall be required under the rules established for their guidance. Such systems shall be controlled and operated by a person, firm, or corporation whose principal business is the furnishing and maintaining of supervised signal service and who does not have interest in protecting properties.
- EMS
- The emergency medical services of the Borough.
- FALSE ALARM
- An alarm to which the Police, Fire or EMS Department responds, resulting from the activation of an alarm device when a crime, fire or other emergency warranting immediate action by the Police Department, Fire Department or EMS has not in fact occurred.
- INDIRECT ALARM DEVICE
- An alarm designed to transmit an alarm to a person who is instructed to notify the Police or Fire Department, or other emergency service of the alarm.
- INTERMEDIARY
- A central protective system or an answering service as herein defined.
- KEY
- To use a telephone line and equipment for transmitting a message, either directly or indirectly, by an automatic protection device.
- PERSON
- An individual, corporation, partnership, incorporated association or other similar entity.
- PROPRIETARY PROTECTIVE SIGNALING SYSTEM
- An installation of protective signaling systems which serve contiguous or noncontiguous properties under one ownership from a central supervising station located at the protected property, whose trained, competent personnel are in constant attendance. This includes the central supervising station, power supplies, signal-initiating devices, initiating devices, initiating device circuits, signal notification appliances, equipment for the automatic, permanent visual recording of signals and equipment for the operation of emergency building-control services.
- REMOTE STATION PROTECTIVE SIGNALING SYSTEM
- An installation using supervised dedicated circuits, installed to transmit alarm, supervisory and trouble signals from one or more protected premises to a remote location at which appropriate action is taken.
- SILENT ALARM
- A protective system that does not emit an audible signal or tone when activated at a protected site and is monitored by an intermediary or an emergency communications center.
B.Â
In this chapter, the singular shall include the plural,
the plural shall include the singular, and the masculine shall include
the feminine and the neuter.
A.Â
Accidental false alarms. Any person causing accidental
false alarms for any reason shall pay to the Borough of Mars a charge
for each and every accidental false alarm to which the Police, Fire,
and/or EMS Department or other emergency service responds, in each
calendar year, as follows:[1]
(1)Â
First to third alarm each year: as determined from
time to time by resolution.
(2)Â
A person that owns, uses or possesses an alarm device
or automatic dialing device may not, after causing or permitting three
false alarms to occur in a consecutive twelve-month period, cause
or permit a subsequent false alarm to occur in the same consecutive
twelve-month period. A person that violates this subsection commits
a summary offense and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay
a fine of not more than $300 pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 7511.
B.Â
The charges levied by this chapter shall not apply
to false alarms due to weather conditions or the first three false
alarms which shall occur during the first six months from initial
installation of the system due to system malfunction and one false
alarm per year thereafter.
C.Â
When an accidental false alarm occurs, the Borough
shall notify the person responsible for the alarm device from which
the false alarm emanated that a false alarm charge is due and the
amount thereof.
D.Â
An accidental false alarm charge shall be due and
payable to the Borough of Mars 30 days from the date of the notice
of the charge.
A.Â
If an alarm device is designed to cause a bell, siren,
or sound-making device to be activated on or near the premises on
which the alarm device is installed at the time it gives an alarm,
said alarm device shall be equipped with a timing mechanism that will
disengage the audible alarm after a maximum period of 10 minutes,
other than fire alarms. Exceptions shall be made for certified systems
requiring longer sounding alarms for insurance purposes, providing
that certification and policy requirements are documented with the
Borough and maintained, and further providing that these devices are
equipped with timers to disengage the audible alarm after the minimum
time required for certification or retroactive to meet this chapter
within 120 days of enactment.
B.Â
The sensory mechanism used in conjunction with an
alarm device must be adjusted to suppress false indications of fire
or intrusion, so that the alarm device will not be activated by impulse
due to transient pressure change with waterlines, short flashes of
light, wind noises, such as rattling or vibrating of doors or windows,
vehicular noises adjacent to the premises, or other forces unrelated
to genuine alarm situations.
C.Â
The alarm device must be maintained in good repair
to assure reliability of operation.
D.Â
No person shall conduct or test any alarm device without
first notifying the Butler County Communications Center. Where the
equipment is keyed through an intermediary, no such permission is
necessary unless the alarm or signal is to be relayed to the central
receiving station.
The Borough Safety Committee shall develop and
implement the necessary procedures for the effective administration
and enforcement of this chapter.
Any person, firm, partnership, or corporation
who shall violate any provision of this chapter or who shall fail
to pay a charge for a false alarm shall, upon conviction before the
Magisterial District Judge thereof, be punishable for each offense
by a maximum fine of $300 or by imprisonment for not more than 90
days.