[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township
of Delaware 11-26-1984 by Ord. No. 1984-24 (Sec. 4-3 of the 1985
Revised General Ordinances). Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Township Committee does hereby find and declare that:
A.
The occupants of numerous residential and commercial establishments
in the Township have found it desirable to make provision for the
installation upon their premises of alarm systems for emergencies
such as burglary and fire.
B.
There have been a substantial number of false alarms associated with
the alarm systems which have been installed within the Township so
that the number of false alarms has resulted in a situation that,
if not remedied, will lead to an unnecessary drain upon the manpower,
time, space, facilities and finances of the Township, its police and
fire departments and the deterioration of the quality of service to
persons subscribing to alarm system services and inequities among
the alarm business operating in the Township.
C.
The public interest, therefore, requires the enactment of rules,
regulations, standards and procedures to regulate and control the
alarm business in the Township.
This chapter has as its purpose the regulating and control of
the installation, operation and maintenance or private alarm systems
within the Township in order to insure that the quality of alarm services
rendered to the public will be maintained at the high level and to
alleviate conditions otherwise leading to an unnecessary drain on
the manpower, time, space, facilities and finances of the Township
of Delaware and its police and fire departments.
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any person other
than the municipality who sells, installs, operates, maintains or
owns any alarm device or local alarm designed to summon the Police
Department, fire department or other municipal agency to any location
in response to any type of alarm signal.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
Any business operated by a person, partnership, corporation,
etc., for profit which engages in the activity of altering, installing,
leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing or
responding to a fire or burglar alarm system or which causes any of
these activities to take place. Excluded from this definition, however,
are retail establishments which sell alarm systems over the counter
and do not service same.
Any type of alarm-activating equipment which provides warning
of burglary, intrusion, fire, flood or like peril.
The installation in one or more buildings of one or more
alarm devices for the express purpose of giving visual and or audible
warning or an emergency such as burglary, intrusion, fire, flood or
like peril.
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation,
company or organization of any kind in control of any building, structure
or facility wherein an alarm device or system is maintained.
An alarm signal eliciting a response by police or fire fighters
or other public officials does not in fact exist (but excluding an
alarm signal caused by violent conditions of nature or other extraordinary
circumstances not reasonably subject to control by the alarm business
or alarm user).
A device having an audible alarm indicating smoke and or
fire within a structure and not connected to an alarm system or to
any external sounding device outside of the structure.
[Amended by Ord. No. 1994-17]
A.
No person shall install, operate or maintain any alarm system unless
the alarm system has been registered with the Police Department. An
alarm system shall be deemed registered at such time as a registration
form supplied by the Police Department is completed as to all information
requested therein. Among the information to be provided on the registration
form is the following:
(1)
The name, address, telephone number of the owner of the property
upon which the alarm system is installed;
(2)
The name of the installer of the system;
(3)
The type of system;
(4)
A list of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the person(s)
to be contacted in the event of an alarm or in an emergency situation
determined by the Police Department;
(5)
The names, addresses and telephone numbers of the persons or company
maintaining the alarm system.
B.
No further renewal registration shall be required unless and until
there has occurred any material change in the information previously
submitted with respect to any alarm system in which event it shall
be the duty of the user of the alarm system within 10 days of such
material change to file a supplemental or revised registration containing
accurate, current information. A one-time fee in the amount of $25
shall accompany each registration containing accurate, current information.
All preexisting alarm systems shall comply with the requirements of
this chapter within 60 days of the date of the final adoption of this
chapter.
A.
Each alarm system shall be installed utilizing discrete circuitry
for multipurpose alarm systems to insure appropriate emergency response.
B.
Any alarm system which requires for its operation electricity supplied
by a public utility may be equipped with a battery rendering it operable
in the event of a power outage if so desired by the property owner.
Such a battery backup system shall only be required for any alarm
system which will trigger itself automatically in the event of a power
outage.
C.
Every alarm system shall be provided with a device which will shut
off the alarm after 15 minutes of activation.
D.
Every burglar alarm system shall be equipped with a time delay of
at least 15 seconds which may include an audible signal of the same
length of time, the time delay to be designed to prevent accidental
activation of the system. The fifteen-second audible signal, if utilized,
shall be audible only within the structure and not externally.
E.
No alarm system may be connected directly or indirectly to the Police
Department.
F.
No person shall install, cause to be installed, or permit to be installed,
any alarm device by whatever name known, which automatically selects
a telephone line dedicated to the Police Department or Fire Department
for the purpose of playing a recorded message to report any emergency.
G.
In the event an alarm system other than a fire or holdup alarm system
is tied into and/or serviced by a central station or answering service
upon activation of the alarm system, the central station or answering
service shall verify the validity of the alarm prior to notifying
the Police Department of same.
H.
No police, fire or other public department or official shall be responsible
in any way for the resetting or maintenance of any alarm system.
I.
No alarm business or person owning, using or possessing an alarm
system shall cause or permit the giving of repeated false alarms whether
intentional, accidental or otherwise.
J.
Any alarm business or person owning, using or possessing an alarm
system who may want to know about a response to any alarm by the Police
Department shall contact the Department. The Police Department will
not contact automatically any such person or answering service to
advise them concerning the result of the Department's response to
any alarm.
K.
An alarm business having knowledge of same shall be responsible for
notifying the Police Department when one of its customers possessing
an alarm system sells his property. The alarm business shall notify
the Police Department as to the name of the new owner and whether
or not the new owner is continuing with an alarm device or system
within the property.
L.
A homeowner possessing or using an alarm system shall also be responsible
for notifying the Police Department of the sale of his property. The
homeowner shall notify the Police Department as to the name of the
new owner and whether or not the new owner is continuing with an alarm
device or system within the property.
All information submitted in compliance with this chapter shall
be held in the strictest confidence and shall be deemed a record exempt
from public disclosure pursuant to state statute. Any violation of
this confidentiality shall be deemed a violation of this chapter.
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any alarm
system installed on property occupied by a Township, county or state
or federal government agency or office, nor to an independent smoke
detector as defined in this chapter.
[Amended by Ord. No. 1994-17]
A.
Any person who fails to register the alarm system as required by
the provisions of this chapter is subject to a fine of $75.
B.
Any owner or user of an alarm system that experiences more than three
false alarms within any one-year period shall be required to modify
or improve the alarm system with a retrofit that will incorporate
into said system a mandatory audible fifteen-second signal that shall
be designed to prevent accidental activation of the system and shall
also be subject to a charge of $50 for each false alarm after three
up to six. Any owner or user of an alarm system that experiences more
than six false alarms within any one-year period shall be required
to disconnect the alarm until the owner can provide to the Delaware
Township Police Department proof of a repair from a registered alarm
company that the problem with said alarm system has been rectified.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, any false alarms that occur
during the first 60 days after an alarm system is installed shall
not be counted towards the number of false alarms as provided for
in this section.
C.
Any owner or user of an alarm system who installs such a system not
in compliance with this chapter is subject to a fine of $75. Additionally,
the owner or user may be required to remove such an alarm system.
Any person who intentionally causes the giving of false alarm
shall be in violation of this chapter and subject to a penalty of
no less than $200 and no more than $500 for each such offense.
The Chief of Police may promulgate written rules and regulations
subject to the approval of the Township Committee supplementing this
chapter, in order to provide for recordkeeping and efficient operation
and management of the system.
