Borough Council of the Borough of Lehighton finds and declares
that:
A. The majority of emergency alarms to which Borough police and emergency
personnel respond are false. Such alarms are nuisances resulting in
enormous waste of manpower and could cause serious injury to those
emergency personnel who may be responding to a false alarm and further,
when said personnel are responding to a false alarm, they are not
available to be protecting the citizens of the Borough of Lehighton.
B. The danger to citizens through emergency responses created by nuisance
alarms are unnecessary and hazardous.
C. The unnecessary waste of tax dollars through responses to nuisance
alarms must be eliminated.
D. Nuisance alarms have created conditions causing danger and annoyance
to the general public.
E. The purpose of this chapter is to insure that installation, maintenance
and function of alarm devices result in effectively providing the
protection desired without resulting in excessive response by emergency
service providers to nonemergency signals. It is intended to apply
to all alarm systems which automatically transmit external information,
requests for assistance, or audible external alarms, intended to summon
emergency response by public emergency service providers to permanently
fixed locations.
The following definitions shall apply in interpretation and
enforcement of this chapter:
ALARM SUPPLIER
The business by an individual, partnership, corporation,
or other entity of selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing,
altering, replacing, moving, or installing any alarm system or causing
any alarm system to be sold, leased, maintained, serviced, repaired,
altered, replaced, moved or installed, in or on any building, structure
or facility.
ALARM SYSTEM
Any device designed or used for detection of intrusion into
a building, structure or facility, or for alerting persons in the
attempt or commission of a crime or any emergency situation involving
potential death or serious injury and which is directly related to
an audible alarm or the transmission of a related signal or message
which is used to evoke an emergency response to any address or separate
component of any system. Such signals may be audible alarms or connected
to automatic dialing devices, a central station or answering service.
ANSWERING SERVICE
A service whereby intermediary individuals receive prerecorded
voice messages from automatic dialing devices reporting an emergency
at a stated location, where such individuals have the duty to relay
by live voice any such emergency message over a trunk line to the
communications center of the emergency service providers.
AUDIBLE ALARM
Any device, bell, horn, or siren which is attached to the
interior or exterior of a building, structure, or facility and emits
a warning signal audible outside the building, structure, or facility
and is designed to attract attention when activated.
AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE
A device which is interconnected to a telephone line and
is programmed to transmit a signal by a voice or coded message that
indicates that an emergency condition exists and an emergency response
is expected.
CENTRAL STATION
An arrangement or system or group of such systems operated
privately by a person, firm or corporation which accepts recorded
messages or electronically transmitted signals from automatic devices
and having operators or individuals who are expected to take appropriate
action upon receipt of a signal or message, including the relaying
of messages to the communications center of the police, Fire Department,
emergency medical or rescue services.
COORDINATOR
An individual appointed by and accountable directly and solely
to the Lehighton Borough Council. This individual shall be appointed
from time to time by Borough Council. Until any other individual is
appointed, the coordinator shall be the Chief of Police of Lehighton
Borough and the Lehighton Borough Police Department.
EMERGENCY
A police, fire hazard, medical, or rescue emergency.
EMERGENCY SERVICES PROVIDERS
Those agencies contracted by the Borough directly or indirectly
to provide emergency services for Lehighton Borough.
FALSE ALARM
A.
An alarm activated in the absence of an emergency, whether willfully
or by inadvertence, negligence, or unintentional act, to which emergency
units respond. The definition excludes alarms caused by malfunctions
of the County Telecommunications Center receiving equipment; alarms
for which the user has attempted to cancel response; testing or repairing
of telephone or electrical lines or equipment outside the premises;
acts of God, such as earthquake, flood, windstorm, thunder, or lightning;
an attempted illegal entry; a crime in progress, or, in the case of
emergency medical alarm, an actual medical emergency requiring police,
fire and/or medical personnel. If doubt exists as to the cause of
the false alarm the provider of the emergency service together with
the Borough Fire Chief or designated coordinator shall make a decision
regarding the circumstances of the activation.
B.
Multiple alarms received before the system can be deactivated
or repaired within a reasonable period of time shall be considered
a single alarm. Multiple emergency service providers dispatched as
the result of an alarm shall be considered a single alarm response.
C.
The definition of a false alarm also includes the intentional
activation of a hold-up alarm for other than a hold-up in progress,
the intentional activation of a burglary alarm for other than a burglary,
the intentional activation of a medical alarm for other than a medical
emergency, or the intentional activation of a fire alarm for other
than a fire or hazard.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
The contracted Borough companies and their designated backup
units.
HAZARD EMERGENCY
An explosion, leak of toxic gas, liquid, or solid, or a potential
explosion or leak.
INTERMEDIARY
A central station or an answering service as herein defined.
KEY
To use a telephone line and equipment for transmitting a
message either directly or indirectly by an automatic dialing device.
POLICE EMERGENCY
An incident requiring prompt response by the Police Department.
REGISTRATION
A written form duly submitted by an applicant to the Borough
upon payment of the required fee.
RESCUE SQUAD
The contracted Lehighton Borough rescue squad emergency service
provider.
TRUNK LINE
A telephone line leading into the communications centers
of the Police and Fire Departments that is for the purpose of handling
calls on a person-to-person basis and which is identified by a specific
listing among the white pages in the telephone directory issued by
the telephone company.
UNEXPLAINED ALARM
An alarm which cannot be reasonable determined to be a false
alarm and is in the absence of an obvious emergency.
On and after the effective date of this chapter, owners or users
of audible alarms must equip such audible alarms with a timing mechanism
that will disengage the audible alarm after a maximum of 15 minutes.
Audible alarms without such a timing mechanism shall be unlawful in
the Borough and must be disconnected by the owner or user within 60
days from the effective date of this chapter.
On and after the effective date of this chapter, all automatic
dialing devices that transmit recorded messages to the County Telecommunications
Center radio room shall be keyed to telephone lines separate and distinct
from the trunk lines for the communications center.
Each alarm supplier who, after the effective date of this chapter,
sells or leases in the Borough an alarm system shall furnish operating
instructions and a descriptive maintenance and repair manual to the
buyer or lessee.
All new alarm installations shall:
A. Use only equipment that is listed by Underwriter's Laboratories,
Inc., as being electrically safe and meeting the Borough requirements
for the alarm system. Wiring for alarm systems must conform with all
applicable Borough codes. In the case of fire alarms, the stricter
of the NFPA standards or Borough codes shall apply.
B. Be provided with standby battery power which shall automatically
and immediately take over in the event of power failure.
C. Be installed in such a way as to neutralize electrical surges on
the alarm system and use direct grounding.
All users of automatic signal notification systems shall display
easily readable house numbers or name signs in the immediate vicinity
of their property to facilitate location by emergency service providers
responding to automatic alarms.
The Borough Council shall appoint a designated coordinator to
administer this chapter. Periodically or as requested, but not less
than once per year, the coordinator will review records or other information
made available by emergency service providers to determine locations
experiencing alarm responses. If, in the coordinator's best judgment,
it is determined that any or all of the responses constitute excessive
and/or unexplained or false alarms, the coordinator shall proceed
as follows:
A. Excessive alarms (more than four in any calendar year. Although excessive
alarms may be all legitimate alarms, the fact that a high number are
being experienced at a given location is cause for consideration of
corrective action by the owner. In such cases the coordinator may
make direct contact or refer the matter to other agencies such as
the Fire Chief, Building Inspector, or other appropriate agency who
may investigate possible violations of established ordinances or who
may make recommendations to the owner to improve the circumstances
causing excessive alarms. The coordinator will not impose penalties
in such cases.
B. False or unexplained alarms.
(1) If the coordinator determines that any alarm is a false alarm, the
coordinator shall immediately notify the owner or occupant in writing
by registered mail of such finding and warn that continued violations
will result in the penalties prescribed by this chapter.
(2) If the coordinator determines that the alarms constitute unexplained
alarms, after two such alarms in a twelve-month period, the coordinator
shall notify the owner or occupant as in Subsetion B(1) above.
(3) The coordinator shall be empowered to impose the penalties provided in §
47-11 below.
For the purposes of defraying the costs of responding to false
alarms and unexplained alarms, the owner, lessee or user of any alarm
system, persons using the services of an intermediary, users of audible
alarms and users of any other kind of alarm systems or any other kind
of direct or indirect connection with emergency service providers
except persons using two-way live voice communication by telephone,
shall, as a condition to registration and continued operation of such
equipment or service, agree that such owner, lessee or user shall
pay the Borough for all false or unexplained alarms originating from
the owner's, lessee's or users premises as follows:
A. False alarms or unexplained alarms.
(1) First false alarm: warning.
(2) Second and third false alarms per calendar year: $50 for each occurrence.
(3) Fourth and subsequent false alarms per calendar year: $100 for each
alarm.
(4) More than five false alarms shall result in revocation of the registration
and request that the system be disconnected.
B. All penalties assessed by the coordinator are due and payable within
10 days at the Borough Office after receipt of the penalty notification.
C. Monetary penalties collected by the Borough under this chapter will
be transmitted to the emergency service providers responding to the
alarm which resulted in the penalty. Fees and penalties prescribed
by this chapter may from time to time be revised by the Borough Council
by resolution at a public meeting.
Any such owner, lessee or user who fails to execute the registration described in §
47-5, within 90 days from the effective date of this chapter shall, within the ninety-day period, disconnect the alarm system.
An alarm user whose registration has been revoked may apply for a probationary registration. Such probationary registration shall not be given until the coordinator is satisfied that the user's system has been properly serviced and is operating correctly. If the alarm user does not have four or more false or unexplained alarms in a calendar year, he may apply for a permanent registration. The probationary registration must be renewed each twelve-month period at a fee of $50. The penalties described in §
47-11 will apply to alarm systems under probationary registration.
Any user subject to the provisions of this chapter may appeal
any notification of the coordinator by written notice to the Borough
Office with 10 days of such notification and request a hearing. Such
hearings shall be conducted within 30 days by the Borough Council.
The Borough Council, by majority vote, may modify the findings or
penalties assessed by the coordinator within the limits of this chapter.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be subject to pay a fine of not less than $300 and not more than $600, and in default of payment, to imprisonment for a term not to exceed 30 days. Each day that a violation of this chapter continues shall constitute a separate offense. This penalty provision shall apply to any violation of this chapter other than those violations covered under §
47-11.