[HISTORY: Adopted by the Annual Town Meeting 5-16-2006
by Art. 19. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For the purpose of this bylaw, certain words and phrases shall be construed
as defined in this article.
The person designated to administer, control, and review alarm applications,
registrations, and alarm dispatch requests. The Chief of Police shall be the
Alarm Administrator unless otherwise designated.
The business, by an individual, partnership, corporation or other
entity, of selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, altering,
replacing, moving, installing or monitoring an alarm system in an alarm site.
A notification to the Emergency Dispatch that an alarm, either manual
or automatic, has been activated at a particular alarm site.
A single premises or location served by an alarm system or systems.
Each tenancy, if served by a separate alarm system in a multi-tenant building
or complex, shall be considered a separate alarm site.
A device or series of devices, including, but not limited to, systems
interconnected with radio frequency signals, which are designed to discourage
crime, signify fire or medical emergency by emitting or transmitting a remote
or local audible, visual or electronic signal indicating an alarm condition.
Alarm system does not include:
Any person, firm, partnership, corporation or other entity, which
uses an alarm system at its alarm site.
The Chief of Police of the Town or the Chief's authorized representative.
An alarm dispatch request to the police or fire department, where
responding officers find no evidence of a criminal offense or attempted criminal
offense or fire or medical emergency after having completed a timely investigation
of the alarm site. An alarm dispatch request that is cancelled by the alarm
business or the alarm user prior to the dispatch of the responding personnel
shall not be considered a false alarm dispatch.
An individual, corporation, partnership, association, organization
or other legal entity.
The transaction or process by which an alarm user takes over control
of an existing alarm system that was previously controlled by another alarm
user.
An attempt, by the alarm business, or its representative, to contact
the alarm site by telephone or other electronic means, whether or not actual
contact with a person is made, before requesting an emergency dispatch, in
an attempt to avoid an unnecessary alarm dispatch request.
A.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, a smoke detector system
required by State Building and Fire Codes shall not be deemed an alarm system
requiring registration as contemplated herein. No alarm user shall operate,
or cause to be operated, an alarm system without first registering in accordance
with this bylaw. A separate registration is required for each alarm site.
B.
Registration shall be valid until ownership of the alarm
site changes.
C.
The application form for registration of an alarm site
shall be prescribed by the Alarm Administrator and shall include the following
information:
(1)
The name, address, and telephone number of the alarm
user who will be responsible for the proper maintenance and operation of the
alarm system and the payment of fees assessed under this bylaw.
(2)
The name, address, and telephone number of the alarm
business monitoring the alarm system.
(3)
The application shall contain the name, address and telephone
number of at least two other persons who are authorized to respond to a signal
transmitted by the alarm system within 20 minutes under normal weather conditions
and who are authorized to open the premises on which the alarm system is installed.
(4)
The application shall contain a waiver of liability from
the alarm user if the Town of Southwick Police or Fire Department has to forcibly
enter the registered premises in order to respond to such an alarm.
(5)
Any other information that enhances the efficiency of
administering this bylaw.
(6)
That all current alarm users shall submit applications
within 90 days following the adoption of this bylaw.
D.
Registration of an alarm under this bylaw cannot be transferred
to another person. If an alarm site is sold or transferred to another, the
application process for a new alarm user must be followed. An alarm user shall
inform the Alarm Administrator, in writing, of any change that alters any
information listed on the permit application within five business days of
such change.
E.
An application for registering an alarm site shall be
processed in a timely manner by the Alarm Administrator. The application shall
be denied if the applicant has failed to pay any fine assessed for violating
this bylaw, or if the applicant has knowingly made any false, misleading or
fraudulent statements of a material fact in the application.
A.
An alarm user shall:
(1)
Maintain the alarm site and the alarm system in a manner
that will minimize or eliminate false alarm dispatches.
(2)
Respond or cause a representative to respond to the alarm
site within 20 minutes under normal weather conditions who can provide access
to the premises on which the private intrusion fire or medical emergency alarm
device is installed, who can allow personnel access to the alarm site to investigate,
who can deactivate a malfunctioning alarm system and provide security for
the alarm site.
(3)
Not manually activate an alarm for any reason other than
an occurrence of any event that the alarm system was intended to report.
(4)
Not cause any alarm system to be connected directly to
the emergency dispatch at the police department by any means including an
automatic dialer.
(5)
Adjust the mechanism or cause the mechanism to be adjusted
so that an alarm signal audible on the exterior of an alarm site will sound
for no longer than 15 minutes after being activated.
B.
If the Alarm Administrator has reason to believe that
an alarm system is not being used or maintained in a manner that ensures proper
operation and suppresses false alarms, the Alarm Administrator may require
a conference with the Fire Department and alarm user to review the circumstances
of each false alarm.
A.
The Town of Southwick will not act as an alarm business
or permit installation of any alarm system monitoring devices within the police
station or emergency dispatch area. By July 1, 2006, all alarm systems except
those owned by the Town of Southwick or its subdivisions will be removed from
the police station or emergency dispatch area and monitored privately.
B.
An alarm business performing monitoring services shall:
(1)
Report alarm signals by using telephone numbers designated
by the Alarm Administrator;
(2)
Attempt to verify every alarm signal, except a hold up
alarm activation, before requesting a police or fire/ems response to an alarm
signal;
(3)
Communicate alarm dispatch requests to the Town in a
manner and form determined by the Alarm Administrator;
(4)
Communicate verified cancellations of alarm dispatch
requests to the Town in a manner and form determined by the Alarm Administrator;
and
A.
An alarm user shall be subject to fines or warnings depending
on the number of false alarm dispatches emitted from an alarm system within
a twelve-month period beginning January first each year, based upon the following
schedule:
|
Number of False Alarm Dispatches
|
Fine
| |
|---|---|---|
|
1-3
|
$0.00
| |
|
4 or more
|
$25.00 each dispatch
|
B.
Any person operating an alarm system who has not registered
in accordance with this bylaw shall be subject to an additional fine of $300
for each violation after one initial warning.
C.
An alarm dispatch request caused by actual criminal offense,
or with evidence of a criminal attempt, or resulting solely from power outages
or extreme weather conditions shall not be counted as a false alarm dispatch.
D.
Intentional causing of a false private intrusion, fire
alarm or medical emergency shall be considered a serious issue resulting in
a fine of $300.
E.
Any person who has neglected any fee or fine due as the
result of this bylaw may have said fee or fines added to the Town of Southwick
municipal tax bill for the property where the alarm system involved is located.
F.
An alarm user can appeal a false alarm determination
to the Board of Selectmen within 10 days of the actual event.
A.
Unless there is a separate indication that there is a
crime in progress, the Chief of Police or officer-in-charge of the shift may
refuse police response to an alarm dispatch request at an alarm site for which
there has been a previous response on the same date. Not withstanding the
foregoing, the fire department will respond to any fire alarm or medical emergency.
A.
The Treasurer-Tax Collector, upon authorization by the
Board of Selectmen, shall institute civil proceedings to enforce the collection
provisions of this bylaw.
B.
Any police officer of the Town may utilize the noncriminal
disposition procedure set forth in the Code of the Town of Southwick[1] or may file an application for a criminal complaint with the Trial
Court of the Commonwealth, District Court that has jurisdiction to enforce
such a complaint issued under this bylaw.
A.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this article, the Town,
its departments, officers, agents and employees, shall be under no obligation
whatsoever concerning the adequacy, operation, or maintenance of any alarm
system or alarm system monitoring facilities of private contractors or within
the police station or emergency dispatch area.
A.
Except as otherwise required by law, the information
furnished and secured pursuant to this bylaw shall be confidential in character,
shall not be subject to public inspection and shall be kept so that the contents
thereof shall not be known except to persons charged with the administration
of this bylaw.
B.
Municipal departments of the Town of Southwick are exempt
from fees required by this bylaw.
C.
The provisions of this bylaw are separable, and if any
article, section or subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this bylaw is
for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any
court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity
of the remaining portions of this bylaw.
D.
Any fine issued under this bylaw shall be paid to the
general fund for the Town of Southwick.
