[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town of Derry 6-4-1991. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Any owner or lessee of property having an alarm system on his or its premises, and any user of alarm service or equipment designed and installed with the intent of eliciting a police response, shall register said alarm system, service or equipment with the Derry Police Department. This includes, but is not limited to, so-called audible alarms, silent alarms, or a combination of the two. Registration shall be on a form provided by the Derry Police Department. All federal, state and county and local government agencies that operate alarm systems shall be exempt from all fees but shall comply with all other requirements of this chapter.
Any owner or lessee of property or user of an alarm system, service or equipment as described in § 9-1 who or which fails to register his or its system, after having received notice to register, shall be charged $25 for each alarm that the police respond to, up to five alarms within the calendar year; the sixth and subsequent alarms within the calendar year shall be charged at $100 each.
A. 
Definition. A false alarm is any activation of an alarm system to which the police respond which is not the result of a robbery, burglary, attempted robbery, or attempted burglary. Such terminology does not include alarms caused by electrical storms, floods, hurricanes, or other violent events of nature, or power disruption or phone service disruption caused by the power or telephone companies.
B. 
Any registered owner or lessee of property having an alarm system on his or its premises and any registered user of alarm services or equipment designed and installed with the intent of eliciting a police response shall pay to the Town of Derry a service charge for each false alarm to which the police respond during the calendar year as follows:
(1) 
Zero to three false alarms: no service charge.
(2) 
Four to 10 false alarms: $25 per alarm.
(3) 
Eleven or more false alarms: $100 per alarm.
C. 
An alarm user may appeal false alarm service charges in writing to the Chief of Police within 10 days after receipt of the notice of penalty.
D. 
Notification.
(1) 
Registered alarm users will be notified by the Derry Police Department in writing of all false alarm responses by police.
(2) 
All false alarm service charges will be submitted to the alarm user in writing monthly by the Derry Police Department.
(3) 
Violators of § 9-2 of this chapter will be contacted by the Derry Police Department for the first such alarm and will thereafter be notified and charged as in Subsections A and B above.
(4) 
A copy of the Derry Police alarm response notice signed by the responding officer shall be mailed to the premises of the alarm site. This shall be deemed sufficient notification to the alarm user of such response.
E. 
Payment of alarm service charge.
(1) 
Payment of the alarm service charge shall be made at the Derry Police Department.
(2) 
Payments shall be due within 30 days of receipt of notification.
(3) 
Failure to make payment for alarm service charges within 30 days of receipt of notification shall result in a ten-dollar penalty charge added to the alarm service charge. Penalty charges will be assessed for each thirty-day period, not to exceed 90 days, that the alarm service charge remains unpaid.
(4) 
No penalty shall be assessed to an alarm user while the alarm service charge is being considered under appeal by the Chief of Police.
F. 
Notice of disconnect.
(1) 
Wherever an alarm system has resulted in 12 or more alarms in a calendar year, the Chief of Police shall send a written notice to the responsible person that the alarm will be disconnected from the Police Department.
(2) 
When, after having been notified to register an alarm system, the alarm user fails to register such alarm with the police, the Chief of Police shall send a written notice to the alarm user indicating that the alarm will be disconnected from the Police Department or that the police will no longer respond.
(3) 
When a registered alarm user fails to pay for alarm service charges, according to Subsection E(3) of this section, that are 90 days overdue, the Chief of Police shall send a written notice to the alarm user indicating that the alarm will be disconnected from the Police Department or that the police will no longer respond.
(4) 
Any person receiving such a disconnect notice shall have 10 days to show just cause why the alarm should not be disconnected.
(5) 
In the absence of just cause the alarm will be disconnected at the end of the ten-day period.
(6) 
In the event it is necessary to disconnect any alarm neither the Police Department nor the Town of Derry shall incur any liability for such action.