The purpose of this chapter is to establish
standards and controls of various types of intrusion, holdup, fire
alarms and other emergency signals from alarm devices that require
Police Department and Fire Department responses for investigation,
action and safeguarding of property within the Village of Irvington.
The following words, terms and phrases, when
used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in
this section, except where the context clearly indicated a different
meaning:
ALARM AGENT
Any person employed by an alarm business whose duties include
the selling, installing, maintaining, repairing, altering, moving,
replacing or servicing of alarm devices or systems.
ALARM BUSINESS
Any business operated by a person for a profit and which
engages in the activity of selling, leasing, installing, maintaining,
repairing, altering, moving, replacing or servicing of alarm devices
or systems.
ALARM SYSTEM
Any assembly of equipment and devices arranged to signal
the presence of a condition requiring urgent attention by the Police
or Fire Department. Any automatic alarm device or group of devices
which when activated signals the existence of a condition which requires
a response by Public Safety Department personnel shall be deemed to
be covered by this chapter.
ALARM USER
Any person on whose premises an alarm system is maintained
with the Village, except for a proprietary system or an alarm system
on motor vehicles.
ANSWERING SERVICE
An agency which provides, among other things, the service
of receiving emergency signals from alarm systems through its employees
and immediately relaying the appropriate message by live voice to
the Police or Fire Department of the jurisdiction in which the alarm
signal originated.
AUTOMATIC ALARM COMMUNICATION DEVICE
An apparatus which automatically sends a digitally encoded
tone sequence, line polarity reversal or other electrical or electronic
signal which indicates the existence of the emergency situation that
an alarm system is designed to detect and report over the airwaves,
telephone lines or other communication cables or facilities.
CENTRAL STATION
An office to which remote alarms and supervisory signaling
devices are connected to receiving equipment monitored by police officers,
private guards or other personnel, and which provides persons to respond
to protected premises when an alarm is received.
FALSE ALARM
The activation of the signaling portion of an alarm system
through mechanical failure, malfunction, loss of externally supplied
electrical power for less than four hours, improper installation,
improper usage or an error or negligence on the part of the owner
or lessee of the premises wherein the system is installed, or through
the error or negligence of employees, guests or agents of the owner
or lessee of the premises. The term shall include all alarm signal
activation incidents in which investigation by Public Safety Department
personnel reveals no evidence of the existence of an emergency condition.
Those alarm signals which investigation reveals were triggered by
physical damage to the protected premises as a result of a hurricane,
tornado, earthquake or other violent natural phenomena, line trouble
signals received via dedicated telephone lines or where a concerted
effort is made to notify Police or Fire Department personnel prior
to their arrival at an alarm location, that an alarm was sent in error,
are excluded from the definition of "false alarms."
LOCAL ALARM SYSTEM
Refers to an alarm signaling system which, when triggered,
causes an audible or visual signaling device to be activated in or
on the premises within or upon which the system is installed.
PRIMARY EMERGENCY NUMBER
A telephone line leading directly into a designated office
of the Police or Fire Department for the purpose of handing emergency
calls on a person-to-person basis, and which is identified as such
by a specific number included among emergency numbers in the telephone
directory issued by the New York Telephone Company covering the service
area within the jurisdiction of the Police and Fire Departments.
PROPRIETARY SYSTEM
An alarm system which transmits its signal to a location
within the protected premises and is monitored by the proprietor of
the premises or his agent. When such a system monitors conditions
which may require a response by police or fire personnel, then it
becomes an "alarm system" as defined in this chapter.
REMOTE SIGNALING SYSTEM
An alarm signaling system which, when triggered, activates
a device which transmits a signal to a central location where action
is taken to respond to and investigate the cause of the signal; i.e.,
Medic Alert System.
SPECIAL EMERGENCY NUMBER
A telephone line leading into a designated office of the
Police or Fire Department having the primary purpose of handling emergency
signals transmitted by automatic alarm communication devices.
SUBSCRIBER or USER
A person who buys or otherwise obtains and uses an alarm
system, whether or not he thereafter contracts with or hires an alarm
business to monitor or service the system.
In addition to any penalties which may be imposed
for violation of certain provisions of this chapter, the Police Department
may deny, suspend or revoke an alarm user permit, or renewal thereof,
for any of the following:
A. Fraud or willful and knowing misrepresentation or
false statement made in the application for an alarm user permit or
in the operation of the licensed system.
B. Deliberate activation of a false alarm.
C. Use of an alarm system to summon public safety personnel
for a condition other than what the system was designed to detect
and report as authorized in the permit.
D. Failure to correct any deficiencies in equipment,
procedures or operation within 30 days of receipt of notice of same
from the Police or Fire Department or within such time as shall be
determined as reasonable by the Police or Fire Departments if said
deficiencies cannot be corrected within 30 days.
All presently existing alarm systems must comply
with the provisions of this chapter by August 1, 1993.