[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors
of the Township of West Deer 4-15-1998 by Ord. No. 278. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
[Amended 10-21-2020 by Ord. No. 437]
No person shall create an intentional or malicious false alarm.
Any person knowingly creating a false alarm will be charged in accordance
with 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4905.
[Amended 10-21-2020 by Ord. No. 437]
Any person causing accidental false alarms for any reason, or
owning or maintaining an alarm system which triggers a false alarm,
shall pay to the Township a charge according to the following schedule.
In the case of an accidental false alarm at an apartment building,
tenant-occupied property, or senior living center, the record owner
of the property shall be the party responsible for remitting payment
of any charge to the Township.
B.Â
For purposes of this chapter, an "accidental false alarm" is defined
as an alarm triggered at any property as a result of any of the following,
as determined by the Fire Chief(s) of the responding Volunteer Fire
Department(s), the Township Code Enforcement Officer or fire marshal,
or their designee:
(1)Â
A malfunction due to the failure to properly test and maintain the
alarm system.
(2)Â
Smoking in a no smoking area where an automatic alarm system is installed.
(3)Â
Failure to notify the dispatch center to which the system is connected
when testing or maintaining the alarm system.
(4)Â
Failure to take all necessary precautions to eliminate false alarms
during construction work in the vicinity of the system.
When a false alarm occurs, the Fire Chief in
that district shall notify the Township within one week of the false
alarm and any false alarm charge. The Township shall then 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.
All false alarm charges shall be due and payable
at the West Deer Township office within 30 days from the date of mailing
of the notice of assessment of the charges.
[Amended 4-20-2016 by Ord. No. 408]
Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated
or permitted the violation of any provision of this chapter, upon
being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced
by the Township, shall pay a judgment of not more than $600, plus
all court costs. No judgment shall commence or be imposed, levied
or payable until the date of the determination of a violation by a
Magisterial District Judge. If the defendant neither pays nor timely
appeals the judgment, the Township may enforce the judgment pursuant
to the applicable rules of civil procedure, at which time, in addition
to any penalties, the violator shall be liable for any attorneys’
fees and costs incurred by the Township. Each day that a violation
continues or each section of this chapter which shall be found to
have been violated shall constitute a separate violation.
[Amended 10-21-2020 by Ord. No. 437]
A.Â
The Fire Chiefs of the respective volunteer fire companies of the
Township shall notify the Township Manager each time that their volunteer
fire company responds to a call which is determined by the Fire Chief
to be a false alarm. All accidental false alarm charges levied and
collected by the Township in accordance with this chapter shall be
distributed to the Volunteer Fire Company which responded to the false
alarm, as reported by the Fire Chief. If more than one volunteer fire
company responded to a false alarm, the charges collected shall be
divided and distributed evenly between each company. The Township
shall remit the collected accidental false alarm charges to the respective
volunteer fire companies on no less than an annual basis.
B.Â
For any accidental false alarm charges collected by the Township
for false alarms which were responded to only by the Township Police
Department and without the assistance of a volunteer fire company,
the charges collected shall be deposited into the Township's
general fund and used for general purposes.
