[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners
of the Township of Lower Pottsgrove 10-4-2004 by Ord. No. 204A (Ch.
13, Part 1, of the 1995 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
The purpose of this chapter is to provide regulations
and standards applicable to alarm devices, alarm businesses, alarm
agents and alarm users as defined in this chapter.
For the purpose of this chapter, the following
definitions shall apply:
Any person who is employed by any business, corporation or
other commercial entity that is registered hereunder to conduct the
business of owning, operating, maintaining, installing, leasing or
selling alarm devices, whose duties include any of the following:
selling, maintaining, leasing, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing,
moving or installing in or on any building, place or premises any
alarm device as defined in this chapter, located within the Township
of Lower Pottsgrove or connected to the central alarm monitoring facility.
Any business, firm, corporation or other commercial entity
which is in the business of owning, operating, maintaining, installing,
leasing or selling an alarm device or devices or system of alarm devices,
which business, firm, corporation or other commercial entity is, as
owner, operator, provider of maintenance service, installer, lessor
or seller of said device, devices or system of devices, subject to
the registration requirements of this chapter.
Any device which, when activated by a criminal act or by
smoke, fire or other emergency requiring Police or Fire Department
response, transmits a signal to a private central alarm station and/or
produces an audible or visible signal to which the Police or Fire
Department are expected to respond. Excluded from this definition
and from the coverage of this chapter are alarm devices which are
designed to alert or signal persons within the premises in which the
alarm device is installed of an attempted unauthorized intrusion,
holdup, fire or other emergency and is not intended to alert persons
outside the premises.
Any police, fire or emergency alarm device or aggregation
of police or fire alarm devices installed on or within a single building
or on or within more than one building or area adjacently located
on a common site, at a specific location.
Any person on whose premises an alarm device is owned, operated,
used or maintained.
Any facility operated by a private firm that owns or leases
a system of alarm devices, which facility is manned by operators who
receive, record or validate alarm signals and relay information about
such validated signals to police and/or fire headquarters when appropriate.
A telephone device that electronically selects a predetermined
telephone number and transmits a digital coded signal to the central
alarm monitoring facility.
Any alarm device which transmits a signal over a leased telephone
line to the central alarm monitoring facility.
A telephone device or telephone attachment that automatically
or electronically selects a telephone line connected to police and/or
fire headquarters and reproduces a prerecorded message to report a
criminal act or other emergency requiring Police or Fire Department
response.
The activation of an alarm system through mechanical failure,
malicious intent, malfunction, improper installation or the negligence
of the owner or lessee of an alarm system or of his or her employer
or agents.
Any alarm device not connected to the central alarm monitoring
facility or to a private central alarm station which, when activated,
causes an audible and/or visual signaling device to be activated on
the exterior of the premises within which the device is installed.
A mechanical deficiency or other fault or failure in an alarm
device which results in a false alarm.
Any alarm device in which activation of the alarm signal
is initiated by the direct action of the alarm user.
The Montgomery County radio communications room.
B.
Unlawful to operate, maintain, install, lease or sell
an alarm device without being registered.
(1)
It shall be unlawful for any person, business, contractor,
firm or corporation to operate, maintain, modify, install, lease or
sell an alarm device or devices or system of alarm devices, as defined
by the terms of this chapter, without first registering with the Township.
(2)
Any person engaged in the business of maintaining,
repairing, servicing, altering, replacing, removing or installing
an alarm device or system of devices shall carry on his person at
all times while so engaged a copy of his company's registration.
(3)
An annual fee of $30 is hereby established in order
to register as an alarm contractor with the Township. All registered
contractors must provide applicable insurance and workers' compensation
documentation as required by the Township. This fee may be amended
from time to time by resolution of the Board of Commissioners.
(4)
At the time of registration and at each subsequent
registration, the contractor shall submit to the Township a list of
all systems installed within the Township during the prior year. The
Police Department shall be provided and shall maintain a duplicate
of all alarm registrations and updates for enforcement purposes.
A.
The Township assumes no responsibility for such system.
(1)
Notwithstanding the registration of any alarm business,
the Police Department, Fire Department and the Township of Lower Pottsgrove
shall be under no obligation whatsoever concerning the adequacy, the
operation or maintenance of the alarm device so installed, and the
Township of Lower Pottsgrove and its authorized agents hereby assume
no liability whatsoever for any failure of any such alarm device or
for failure to respond to any such alarm device or system.
(2)
The alarm user and alarm business, upon registration,
hereby agrees to hold and save harmless the Township of Lower Pottsgrove,
its agents or employees from any liability whatsoever in connection
with any such alarm device or the operation of the same.
B.
Dial alarm devices; using telephone switchboard for
prerecorded voice messages prohibited. No person shall use or cause
or permit to be used any dial alarm device that automatically selects
a telephone trunk line of the Police or Fire Department of the Township
of Lower Pottsgrove and then reproduces any prerecorded voice message
to report any robbery, burglary, fire or other emergency. The use
of any dial alarm which relays a digital coded signal to the central
alarm monitoring facility is permitted under this chapter.
C.
Intentional false alarm. It shall be a violation of
this chapter to intentionally cause a false alarm, and any person
who does intentionally cause a false alarm shall be subject to the
penalty provisions of this chapter.
D.
Burglary alarms. Beginning on the 91st day of the
installation of a system, any owner or lessee of property having a
privately monitored or local alarm device on the property shall pay
to the Township a penalty fee of $35 for the second and each subsequent
false alarm to which the Township police respond in each calendar
year.
E.
Fire alarms. Beginning on the 91st day of the installation
of a system, any owner or lessee of property having a privately monitored
or local alarm device on the property shall pay to the Township a
charge for a false alarm to which any Township Fire Department responds,
as follows:
F.
Alarms without timing mechanisms and recorded voice
messages prohibited. After the enactment of this chapter, owners or
lessees must equip audible alarms with a timing mechanism that will
disengage the audible alarm after a maximum period of 15 minutes.
Audible alarms without such a timing mechanism shall be unlawful in
the Township and must be disconnected by the owner or lessee within
90 days from the effective date of this chapter.
G.
Removal of unlawful equipment. In addition to any
other remedy provided by law, the Township, whenever it shall have
knowledge of the use of any alarm device, cabinet or attachment which
is not operated or maintained in accordance with the provisions of
this chapter or which is contrary to regulations promulgated pursuant
to this chapter, may order the disconnection of such device from police
and fire headquarters, and it shall be unlawful to disobey such order.
H.
Rules, regulations, standards and enforcement. The
Township shall promulgate rules, regulations and standards applicable
to alarm devices, alarm businesses, alarm agents and alarm users which
are necessary for the purpose of assuring the quality, efficiency
and effectiveness of alarm devices and alarm installations owned,
operated, maintained, installed, leased or sold by a registrant under
this chapter. The Lower Pottsgrove Township Police Department shall
administer and enforce the provisions of this chapter. The aforesaid
rules, regulations and standards shall be set forth in writing and
copies shall be available for applicants.
The failure of any person, natural or corporate, to register as required by § 80-3, perform or obey any provision of this chapter, or pay any charge pursuant to this chapter within 90 days of date it is levied constitutes a violation punishable by a fine of up to $600 for each such violation. Each day that a violation continues after the expiration of the period allowed for compliance under the provisions of this chapter shall constitute a separate offense.
