[HISTORY: Adopted by the Council of the City of Mount Vernon 4-8-1987, approved 4-9-1987. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
An intolerable amount of police resources are being expended
in responding to alarms that have been activated other than by the
commission of a crime. The purpose of this chapter is to avoid the
current waste of police resources by reducing the number of false
alarms to which the Department of Public Safety must respond.
Whenever used in this chapter, the following terms shall have
the meanings indicated:
- ALARM BUSINESS
- Any business operated by a person or corporation that engages in the selling, leasing, maintaining, installing, repairing, altering, moving, replacing or servicing of an alarm device or system.
- ALARM SYSTEM
- Any device or assembly of equipment and devices designed or intended to signal the presence of a situation requiring the urgent attention of the Department of Public Safety.
- ALARM USER
- Any person on whose premises an alarm system is used, operated or maintained, except for alarm systems on motor vehicles.
- AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE
- Any alarm system which automatically sends over the telephone lines, by direct connection or otherwise, a prerecorded voice message or coded signal indicating the existence of an emergency situation.
- CENTRAL ALARM STATION
- Any facility operated by a private corporation that owns or leases a system of alarm devices, which facility is manned by operators who receive, record or validate alarm signals and relay information about such validated signals to the Department of Public Safety when appropriate.
- CITY
- The City of Mount Vernon.
- COMMISSIONER
- The Commissioner of Public Safety of the City of Mount Vernon.
- COUNTY
- The County of Westchester.
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
- The Department of Public Safety of the City of Mount Vernon.
- FALSE ALARM
- The activation of an alarm system through mechanical failure, malfunction, improper installation, improper usage or the negligence of the owner or lessee of an alarm system or through the error or negligence of employees, guests or agents of the owner or lessee of the premises. It shall include all alarm signal activation incidents in which investigation by the Department of Public Safety reveals no evidence of the existence of an emergency condition. Those alarm signals that investigation reveals to have been triggered by physical damage to the protected premises as a result of hurricane, tornado, earthquake or other violent natural phenomenon and line trouble signals received via dedicated telephone lines are excluded from the definition of "false alarm."
- PERSON
- Any person, partnership, corporation or unincorporated association.
- PROPRIETARY SYSTEM
- Any alarm system that does not transmit signals to a monitoring system off premises or to a law enforcement agency but sounds at a control center on the protected premises and is under the supervision of the proprietor of the protected premises. When such an alarm monitors conditions that may require the response of the Department of Public Safety personnel, it becomes an alarm system as defined in this chapter.
A.
Every
alarm system maintained within the City equipped with an externally
audible local signaling device shall be provided with an automatic
cutoff to silence the audible external signal at the end of a period
not to exceed 15 minutes from the time at which the signaling device
is activated in residential systems and 30 minutes in commercial systems.
B.
After
June 1, 1987, every alarm system installed within the City shall be
equipped with a rechargeable, standby power supply system sufficient
to maintain the alarm system in a state of readiness to detect the
conditions it was installed to monitor for a period of at least four
hours in the event of a loss of power supplied by either the public
utility system or the customary power system provided for the premises.
Such standby power supply must also retain sufficient energy to power
local audible or visible signaling devices at rated volume or intensity
for at least 10 minutes.
All alarm business personnel who engage in selling, installing,
servicing or maintaining alarm systems within the City, when engaged
in their trade, shall carry a county alarm agent identification card
issued pursuant to Article XV of Chapter 863 of the Laws of Westchester
County.
A.
After
June 1, 1987, it shall be unlawful to maintain any automatic dialing
device programmed to access any Department of Public Safety telephone
number.
B.
Persons
owning or leasing an automatic dialing device may program the device
to transmit its signal to a central alarm station, an answering service
or any other consenting third party.
C.
The
Department of Public Safety shall not be required to respond to any
alarm signal transmitted in violation of this section.
A.
It
shall be a violation of this chapter to cause or permit the activation
of a false alarm signal. The alarm owner, lessee or user shall be
held accountable for all false alarms originating from the alarm user's
system and shall be fully liable for all charges and penalties arising
therefrom.
B.
The
Commissioner of Public Safety shall be empowered to take whatever
action is reasonably necessary to prevent an activated false alarm
signaling device from interfering with the Department of Public Safety's
ability to receive any additional alarm signal or from interfering
unnecessarily with the tranquility of the surrounding community.
The following shall be penalties for the offense of a violation
of provisions of this chapter:
B.
For maintaining an automatic dialing device or system programmed to access a telephone number of the Department of Public Safety in violation of § 83-6A, a fine of $50 for each time a signal is received from such device.
If any section, paragraph, clause, phrase or provision of this
chapter shall be adjudged invalid or held unconstitutional, the same
shall not affect the validity of this chapter as a whole or any part
or provision other than the part so decided to be invalid or unconstitutional.
This chapter shall take effect June 1, 1987.
