[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Trafford 1-9-2001
by Ord. No. 680. Amendments noted where applicable.]
An intolerable amount of Police and Fire Department resources are being
expended in responding to alarms that have been activated other than by the
commission of a crime or detection of fire. The purpose of this chapter is
to avoid the current waste of these resources by reducing the number of false
alarms to which these Departments must respond.
Whenever used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
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.
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 Police and/or Fire Department.
Any person on whose premises an alarm system is used, operated or
maintained, except for alarm systems on motor vehicles.
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.
The Borough of Trafford.
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 Police and/or Fire Department when appropriate.
The Counties of Westmoreland and Allegheny.
The Department of Public Safety of the Borough of Trafford or Westmoreland
County 911.
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 Police Department
and/or Fire Department 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."
Any person, partnership, corporation or unincorporated association.
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 Police and/or Fire Department personnel,
it becomes an "alarm system" as defined in this chapter.
A.
Every alarm system maintained within the borough 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 10 minutes from the time at which the signaling device is activated
in residential systems and 20 minutes in commercial systems.
B.
After the effective date of this chapter, every alarm
system installed within the borough 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.
A.
After January 16, 2001, 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 Department 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 Police Department and/or
Fire Department'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 § 62-5A, a fine as set forth from time to time by resolution of the Borough Council to the Borough of Trafford for each time a signal is received from such device.
C.
For false alarms as defined in § 62-2, which occur within any twelve-month period, the owner or lessee of the premises shall be subject to the following fines:
(1)
First false alarm: no fine.
(2)
Second false alarm: as set forth from time to time by
resolution of the Borough Council to the Borough of Trafford.
(3)
Third false alarm: as set forth from time to time by
resolution of the Borough Council to the Borough of Trafford.
(4)
Subsequent false alarms: as set forth from time to time
by resolution of the Borough Council to the Borough of Trafford.
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 January 1, 2001.
