[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee
of the Township of Blairstown as indicated in article histories. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Uniform construction codes — See Ch. 87.
[Adopted as Sec. 10-5 (Ord. No. 88-20) of the 1977 Revised General
Ordinances]
The purpose of this article is to alleviate
those conditions within the Township of Blairstown, whereby policemen
and fire personnel make unnecessary responses to alarms and thereby
drain the manpower, time, space and facilities of the Township of
Blairstown in providing responses to fire alarms and burglar alarms
within the Township of Blairstown.
As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
Any business operated by a person, partnership, or corporation,
for profit, which engages in the activity of altering, installing,
leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing or
responding to a fire or burglar alarm system, or which causes any
of these activities to take place.
Any type of alarm-activating equipment which provides warning
of burglary, intrusion, fire, flood, or like peril.
The installation in one or more buildings of one or more
alarm devices for the express purpose of giving visual and/or audible
warning of an emergency such as burglary, intrusion, fire, flood,
or like peril.
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation,
company or organization of any kind in possession or control of any
building, structure or facility wherein an alarm device or system
is maintained.
An alarm signal eliciting a response by police or firefighters
or any other public officials when a situation requiring a response
by police or firefighters or any other public officials does not in
fact exist, but excluding an alarm signal caused by violent conditions
of nature or other extraordinary circumstances not reasonably subject
to control by the alarm business or alarm user.
A device giving an audible alarm indicating smoke and/or
fire within a structure and not connected to an alarm system or to
any external sounding device outside of the structure.
A.Â
No person shall install, operate or maintain any alarm
system unless the alarm system has been registered with the Police
Department. An alarm system shall be deemed registered at such time
as a registration form supplied by the Police Department is completed
as to all information requested therein. Among the information to
be provided on the registration form is the following:
(1)Â
The name, address, telephone number of the owner,
occupant, or user of the property upon which the alarm system is installed.
(2)Â
The name, address, and telephone number of the installer
of the system.
(3)Â
The name, address, and telephone number of the maintainer
of the system.
(4)Â
The type of system.
(5)Â
A list of the names, addresses, and telephone numbers
of person(s) to be contacted in the event of an alarm or in an emergency
situation determined by the Police Department.
(6)Â
A detailed description and location of the alarmed
premises.
B.Â
No further renewal registration shall be required
unless and until there has occurred any material change in the information
previously submitted with respect to any alarm system in which event
it shall be the duty of the user of the alarm system, within 10 days
of such material change, to file a supplemental or revised registration
containing accurate, current information.
C.Â
All pre-existing alarm systems shall comply with the
registration requirements of this section within 60 days of the date
of the final adoption of this article.
A.Â
Each alarm system shall be installed utilizing discrete
circuitry for multipurpose and single alarm systems to insure appropriate
emergency response.
B.Â
Any alarm system which requires for its operation
electricity supplied by a public utility may be equipped with a battery
rendering it operable in the event of a power outage if so desired
by the property owners. Such battery backup system shall only be required
for any alarm system which will trigger itself automatically in the
event of a power outage.
C.Â
Every burglar alarm system must be provided with a
device which will shut off the alarm after 15 minutes of activation.
D.Â
Every burglar alarm system not fitted with an external
key switch shall be equipped with a time delay of at least 15 seconds
which may include an audible signal of the same length of time, said
time delay to be designed to prevent accidental activation of the
system. The fifteen-second signal, if utilized, shall be audible only
within the structure and not externally.
E.Â
No alarm system may be connected directly to the alarm
system panel located in the Police Department without the approval
of the owner of the alarm system panel and Chief of Police or his
designee.
F.Â
No person shall install, cause to be installed, or
permit to be installed, any alarm device, by whatever name known,
which automatically selects a telephone line dedicated to the Police
Department or Fire Department for the purpose of playing a recorded
message to report any emergency.
G.Â
In the event an alarm system, other than a fire or
holdup alarm system, is tied into and/or serviced by a central station
or answering service, upon activation of said alarm system, the central
station or answering service shall verify the validity of the alarm
prior to notifying the Police Department of same.
H.Â
No police, fire, or other public department or official
shall be responsible in any way for the resetting or maintenance of
any alarm system.
I.Â
No alarm business or person owing, using or possessing
an alarm system shall cause or permit the giving of repeated false
alarms whether intentional, accidental or otherwise.
J.Â
A new homeowner, occupant or user possessing or using
an alarm system shall be responsible for notifying and reregistering
the system with the Police Department within 30 days of his purchase
and/or transfer of title of the property.
All information submitted in compliance with
this article shall be held in confidence and shall be deemed a record
exempt from public disclosure pursuant to state statute(s). Any violation
of confidentiality shall be deemed a violation of this article.
The provisions of this article shall not apply to any alarm system installed on property occupied by any Township, county or state or federal government agency or office, nor to an independent smoke detector as defined in § 56-2.
A.Â
Any person who fails to register said alarm system
as required by the provisions of this article is subject to a minimum
fine of $50.
B.Â
Any owner or user of an alarm system which experiences
more than two false alarms within any one-year period shall be required
to modify or improve said system with a retrofit which will incorporate
into said system a mandatory audible fifteen-second signal which shall
be designed to prevent accidental activation of the system.
C.Â
Owners and users of alarm systems shall be subject
to the following minimum fine schedule for false alarms:
|
Minimum Fine/Penalty
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number of False Alarms
|
Fire
|
Police/Burglar
| |
|
3
|
$50
|
$50
| |
|
4
|
$75
|
$75
| |
|
5
|
$90
|
$90
| |
|
6 or more
|
$100
|
$100 each
| |
D.Â
Any owner or user of an alarm system who accidentally
activates his/her burglar alarm and promptly notifies the Police Department
within two minutes after activation will not be charged with a false
alarm call. This grace period shall not apply to fire alarms.
E.Â
Any owner or user of an alarm system who installs
such a system not in compliance with this section is subject to a
minimum fine of $50. Additionally, said owner or user may be required
to remove such an alarm system.
F.Â
Any owner or user of an alarm system shall be notified
by the Township Police Department once two false alarms have occurred
with said system.
Any person who intentionally causes the giving
of a false alarm shall be in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:33-3.
A fee schedule for the use and service of the
alarm system established at the Police Department of the Township
is as follows:
[Amended by Ord. No. 93-10]
A.Â
The person who receives the notice of violation or summons in reference to a violation of § 56-7 or their designated representative ("the alarm user") shall have the right to a hearing before the Township Committee to show cause why the penalty provisions of § 56-7 should not be enforced against said alarm user only if said alarm user files with the Township Clerk a written request for a hearing before the Township Committee within 10 days of the alarm user's receipt of said notice of violation or summons.
B.Â
The hearing before the Township Committee shall be
heard within 25 days of the receipt of the written notice by the Township
Clerk or if no public meeting of the Township Committee is scheduled
within 25 days, at the first public meeting thereafter.
C.Â
The alarm user may, at the request of the Township
Committee, be required to provide evidence of his or her good faith
efforts to cure, remedy or replace the malfunctioning alarm system.
[Adopted as Sec. 10-6 (Ord. No. 92-11) of the 1977 Revised General
Ordinances]
All one- and two-family residences within the
Township shall, within six months of the enactment of this article,
install and maintain in good working order smoke sensitive alarms
or smoke detectors on each level of that residence.
No owner, or agent of any owner, shall sell,
convey or transfer title, or permit a person or family to begin a
new occupancy of a portion or the entirety of any one- and two-family
residential premises within the Township unless and until that owner
or agent of any owner applies for and obtains a certification of smoke
detector compliance in compliance with this article.
The Department of Fire Inspections, through
its employees, and/or the Fire Subcode Official shall be authorized
to inspect residential premises upon the request of the owner (or
the owner's agent) of the residential premises in question and the
payment to the Township of an application fee of $25. The inspector
shall determine if an operable and operating smoke detector exists
on each level of the residential premises.
All persons described in § 56-13 above, as the local enforcement agency responsible for enforcing the Uniform Fire Safety Act (P.L. 1983, c. 383)[1], shall also be permitted to issue the certification of smoke detector compliance on such forms as are approved by the Fire Safety Bureau of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs when the residential premises inspected are found to be in compliance with § 56-3.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 52:27D-192 et
seq.
