Because faulty alarm systems often cause a serious public and
official nuisance that may detract from normal police or fire activity,
the following local law is enacted to increase the reliability of
police and fire protection.
The intent of this local law shall be to provide for the regulation
and setting of standards for police, fire or other emergency alarm
systems in the Village of Liberty, County of Sullivan, State of New
York, together with fees and procedures for connection of such devices.
This local law shall pertain to various types of burglar, fire and
other emergency alarm devices whether by direct line, radio, telephone
or other means of actuation of said device.
As used in this local law, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
ALARM DEVICE
Any type of alarm system actuating equipment that provides
a warning of intrusion, fire, smoke, flood or other peril.
DIAL ALARM
That type of device using telephone lines transmitting an
alarm directly to the Village of Liberty Police and Fire Departments.
FALSE ALARM
Any alarm actuated by inadvertence, negligence or intentional
act of someone other than an intruder and shall include as well alarms
caused by malfunction of the alarm device or other relevant equipment.
LOCAL ALARM
Any alarm or device which when activated produces an audio
or visual signal which is not connected to the telephone lines of
the Village of Liberty Police Department or which can be heard or
seen by the general public.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association or corporation
to connect or cause to be connected or to continue to be connected
any dial alarm into the Village Police or Fire Department reporting
telephones or any other telephone which is maintained by the Village
of Liberty, or any device which automatically connects the alarm device
to and causes a message to be received by any Village police or other
Village telephone.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association or corporation
to connect or install or to continue to be connected or installed
any local alarm within the Village of Liberty unless such person,
firm, association or corporation has registered said alarm with the
Village of Liberty Police Department.
Any registration may be denied if the Chief of Police disapproves
the equipment intended to be used by the registrant or the manner
of use thereof or if the registrant has violated any other provisions
of the local law.
Unless required by law, no alarm device which produces an exterior
audible signal shall be installed unless its operation is automatically
restricted to a maximum of 15 minutes, except that Underwriters'
Laboratories, Inc., certified commercial systems which require a minimum
of 30 minutes shall be restricted to a maximum of 30 minutes, provided
that if at any time the minimum shall be reduced, the maximum permitted
under this exception shall be reduced in conformity therewith.
All registrations as may be granted hereunder shall be accepted
upon the express conditions that:
A. The
registrant shall defend, indemnify and save harmless the Village of
Liberty and its authorized officials, agents and employees from and
against any and all damages, costs, expenses and liability arising
out of the acts of or failure to act of the Village of Liberty; or
arising out of any defects, deficiencies or inadequacies in any alarm
device or devices for which registration has been granted; or in any
installation, monitoring or maintenance thereof; or by reason of any
malfunction or defect in the operation of maintenance of the alarm.
B. The
registrant shall comply with all other provisions of this local law.
All equipment to be used by the registrant shall be described
in the registration and shall be a type approved by the Federal Communications
Commission and the Village of Liberty Chief of Police.
It shall be the responsibility of the owner of such alarm equipment
to maintain the same in proper operating condition at all times. In
the event of the failure of any owner to properly maintain such equipment
in such a manner as to limit false alarms, the service provided by
the Village may be discontinued upon 10 days' written notice
to the owner, addressed to the address of the improperly maintained
equipment.
Except violations of §
8-5 of this local law, any person who shall violate any of the terms or provisions of this local law shall be guilty of an offense against this local law and shall be punished by a fine of $100 for each offense.
In the case of false alarms, any person having knowledge thereof
shall immediately notify the Village of Liberty Police Department.
The Chief of Police of the Village shall cause an investigation to
be made, issue summons therefor and shall make a report of all incidents
and keep a record of the same. For such false alarms, the Mayor and
Board of Trustees prescribe the following penalties:
A. For the first 12 burglar or fire false alarms in any given calendar
year, a warning shall be issued.
[Amended 2-4-1998 by L.L. No. 2-1998]
B. For subsequent false alarms in the same calendar year, a summons
shall be issued which shall carry a fine of $25 payable to the Village
of Liberty, and in addition, the Chief of Police of the Village may
issue a written notice to the owner or operator of said alarm equipment
requiring that he or she disconnect the same from service where, in
the judgment of the Chief of Police, the number of false alarms in
a given calendar year is deemed to be excessive.
This local law shall take effect January 1, 1988.