[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of River Vale 8-27-1992 by Ord. No. 0-13-92 (Ch. 5 of the 1967 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fire subcode fees — See Ch. 90, § 90-4D.
Fire prevention — See Ch. 112.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide standards and regulations for various types of burglar, fire, smoke and other emergency alarm devices within the Township.
This chapter shall apply to any person who operates, maintains or owns any burglar, fire, smoke or other emergency alarm device designed to summon the Police Department, Fire Department or other municipal agencies to any location in response to the alarm.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ALARM SYSTEM
A device or an assembly of equipment which emits an audible response, which is intended to alert persons outside a premises to the existence of a hazard or emergency or which is intended to alert emergency agencies by automatically dialing an emergency agency or which is connected to a business which offers the service of receiving emergency signals, monitoring said signals and relaying them to an emergency agency.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL ALARMS
An alarm which is activated in the event of a medical emergency.
FALSE ALARM
Any alarm activated by or resulting from inadvertence, negligence or an unintentional act of someone other than an intruder and shall include, as well, alarms caused by malfunction of the alarm device.
PERSON
Any person, firm, partnership, corporation, association, company or organization of any kind.
A. 
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to emergency medical alarms.
B. 
Permits shall be required for alarm systems located in buildings of federal, state or local governmental agencies or authorities or in public elementary schools, but said alarm systems shall be exempt from the permit fee, but said alarms shall be subject to the fines and penalties herein provided for false alarms.
No person shall own, use, lease, operate or maintain an alarm system within the Township unless such person shall have first obtained from the Police Department an alarm user permit for such alarm as herein provided.
In order to obtain an alarm user permit, any person who operates an alarm system shall submit an application for such permit in the form designated by the River Vale Chief of Police, which application shall contain the following:
A. 
The name, home address and telephone number of the person applying for the permit.
B. 
The address of the premises upon which the alarm system is or will be located.
C. 
The type of alarm system for which the permit is sought.
D. 
The name, address and telephone number of one or more persons who can be reached at any time and who are authorized by the owner of the premises in which the system is installed to open the premises.
E. 
Any other information relating to the alarm system or the user as the Chief of Police may require.
Upon receipt of a properly executed permit application, the Chief of Police shall issue an alarm user permit to the applicant. Alarm user permits shall not be transferable, shall be kept on the premises where the alarm system is located and shall be made available for inspection by the Police Department.
[Amended 4-22-1993 by Ord. No. 0-5-93; 8-26-2004 by Ord. No. 0-9-04]
A. 
Every application for an alarm user permit shall be accompanied by a fee of $50 or $15 for applicants over the age of 65.
B. 
There shall be required an annual renewal of the alarm user permit, at a fee of $15 per annum; said renewal procedure to be administered by the Chief of Police.
[Amended 2-8-2021 by Ord. No. 373-2021]
A. 
In the case of a false alarm, the Police Department shall cause an investigation to be made and shall keep a record of said alarms on file.
B. 
For such false alarms, the following penalties are prescribed:
(1) 
For the first and second false alarms in any given calendar year, there shall be a written warning issued.
(2) 
For the third false alarm in the same calendar year, a fine of $25 shall be paid to the Township of River Vale.
(3) 
For the fourth false alarm in the same calendar year, a fine of $50 shall be paid to the Township of River Vale.
(4) 
For the fifth false alarm and each false alarm thereafter in the same calendar year, a fine of $150 shall be paid to the Township of River Vale.
A. 
The Township of River Vale shall be under no duty or obligation to maintain the police panel alarm system equipment or any equipment or device connected thereto by a permit holder under this chapter.
B. 
The Police Department of the Township of River Vale shall be under no obligation whatsoever for the installation, connection, adequacy, operation or maintenance of the alarm, equipment, device or systems so installed or connected.
C. 
The Township of River Vale shall not be liable for any failure of such alarm system or equipment.
Any person not complying with any of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined as provided in Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article I, § 1-14, in addition to the fees as set forth in § 45-8 and the penalties for false alarms as set forth in § 45-9 of this chapter.