[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the
Town of Aurora 2-14-1994 by L.L. No. 1-1994; amended in its entirety 5-27-2003. Subsequent
amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fire prevention and building construction — See Ch. 65.
This chapter of the Aurora Town Code shall be
known as the "Town of Aurora Alarm Code."
The purpose of this chapter is to protect and
promote the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of
the Town of Aurora by reducing the number of false alarms, via proprietary
alarm systems, of fire, intrusion, holdup, emergency medical systems
or other emergencies which contribute to ineffective utilization of
police and fire and emergency response agencies. Such emergency responses
are susceptible to high accident rates, interfere with genuine emergencies
(responses) and produce unnecessary alarm noise to the surrounding
community.
For the purpose of this chapter, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to
them by this section:
A device or an assembly of equipment which is designed to
detect smoke, abnormal rise in temperature, fire, water flow, medical
emergency or an entry into or exit from a building, structure or facility
or a holdup alarm and, by reason thereof, emits an audible response
intended to alert persons outside of the premises and/or transmit
a signal or message to an emergency agency, either directly or through
a private or commercial relay facility.
A device that automatically dials and relays a prerecorded
message to an emergency agency or to a commercial relay facility.
The Police Department or Fire Department, Central Fire Alarm
Office, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) or other emergency dispatch
center.
An activation of an alarm system where either an emergency
situation does not exist or the activator does not have a reasonable
basis to believe that an emergency situation does exist.
A.
No person shall install or maintain an external alarm
system which does not contain an operational automatic cutoff system
which turns off the external audible alarm once activated after a
period not to exceed 10 minutes.
B.
An automatic dialer connected directly to an emergency
agency shall automatically disconnect and/or terminate its message
after the message has been transmitted a maximum of two times. Notwithstanding
the foregoing, however, the total transmission time of all messages
shall not exceed five minutes.
There shall be no automatic alarm system with
direct communication to any type of an emergency agency without prior
written authorization from the emergency agency where the alarm terminates.
An owner or lessee of real property to which
an emergency agency responds as a result of a false alarm shall pay
a fee for each such response in each calendar year as follows:
The owner or lessee of real property which received an emergency response by reason of a false alarm shall be notified, in writing, by means of first-class mail, of all false alarms, including police alarms, fire alarms and/or EMS alarms, in a calendar year. The letter shall inform the owner or lessee of the times and types of emergency responses provided to the address location and, where applicable, contain a copy of the Alarm Code and notify the owner or lessee of any charges due pursuant to § 35-7 of this chapter.
The Chief of Police of the Town of Aurora, or his designee, and the Building Superintendent of the Town of Aurora, or his designee, shall establish a policy and procedure, which need not be written, whereby an owner of real property or lessee thereof on which an alarm system has been installed and who has been notified of a false alarm may present evidence as to why any such alarm should not be classified as a false alarm. The Chief of Police, or his designee, and the Building Superintendent, or his designee, shall designate one or more members of their departments, which may include themselves, not to exceed three in total, to receive such evidence and make recommendations and findings of fact concerning such classification. The Chief of Police, or his designee, and the Building Superintendent, or his designee, shall make the final determination concerning a classification, which determination shall be reviewable only pursuant to procedures under Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules. To challenge the classification of an alarm as a false alarm, the real property owner or lessee thereof shall, in writing, notify the Chief of Police and/or the Building Superintendent within 10 days after receipt of notice of the alarm, which will be presumed to have been received three days after mailing pursuant to § 35-8 of this chapter. The failure to give such timely notice shall be deemed a waiver of the right to review any such determination.
Charges for false alarms shall be paid to the Town Clerk of the Town of Aurora at 5 South Grove Street, East Aurora, New York, 14052, within 30 days of the mailing date of any notice provided pursuant to § 35-8 of this chapter.
Failure of a real property owner or lessee of property on which an alarm system is installed to pay any false alarm charges, as defined in § 35-7 of this chapter, within 30 days of the mailing date of a notice of the amount due provided pursuant to § 35-8 of this chapter shall be deemed a violation of this chapter and may result in said real property owner or lessee, as the case may be, being served with a summons.
The Chief of Police shall enforce this chapter
for alarm systems which detect intrusions or holdup alarms at a building,
structure or facility. The Building Superintendent shall enforce this
chapter for alarm systems which detect smoke, fire, water flow or
abnormal rate of rise in temperature or emergency medical systems.
If both Police Department and Fire Department alarms are activated,
the Building Superintendent will enforce this chapter.
[Amended 3-28-2016 by L.L. No. 1-2016]
Any person or persons, association or corporation committing
an offense against this chapter or any section or provision thereof
is guilty of a violation punishable by a fine not exceeding $250 or
imprisonment for a period not exceeding 15 days for each such offense,
or by both such fine and imprisonment.
This chapter shall become effective on the latter
of the first day of March 1994 or its proper filing with the Secretary
of the State of the State of New York in a manner consistent with
§ 27 of the New York Municipal Home Rule Law.
