[HISTORY: Adopted by the County Board of Stephenson County 11-28-1990 by Ord. No.
90-11-160 (Ch. 2 1/2 of the 1977 Code). Amendments
noted where applicable.]
A.
For any person or business having previously filed a notification statement with the Sheriff's Department, there shall be no fee for the first and second false alarm in any calendar year. With the third and subsequent false alarms sent to the Sheriff, the owner of the alarm system shall pay the sum of $100 as described in § 200-2. Further, if there is a false alarm it is the obligation of the owner of the alarm system to notify the Sheriff as to the cause of that false alarm and what arrangements have been made to ensure that the chance of a false alarm is substantially reduced in the future.
B.
Any person who does not register his alarm system with the Sheriff prior to a false alarm shall have to pay, upon the first false alarm, a sum of $100 and notify the Sheriff of the cause of the false alarm and steps taken to remedy the defect. Upon the second false alarm in a calendar year, the fee shall be $150, and $150 for each false alarm thereafter. If the alarm owner completes the notification statement subsequent to the first but before a subsequent false alarm, he will be treated as in Subsection A above thereafter.
C.
Furthermore, if the person responsible for the alarm system does
not inform the Sheriff's Department after the third false alarm
within a calendar year of the cause and the steps taken to substantially
reduce the false alarm risk, the Sheriff may use his discretion as
to whether or not to respond to the next alarm at that location in
an emergency fashion or respond in a nonemergency fashion. It is the
purpose of this section to encourage the Sheriff not to endanger the
citizens of the County and officers who would respond by emergency
means to an alarm where there is insufficient evidence to warrant
a belief that the alarm system call is a bona fide emergency.
All such fees shall be paid to the County general fund for the
purposes of defraying the costs of responding to alarm system requests
for emergency assistance.
This chapter applies to all types of alarms transmitted by any
means to the Sheriff and applies to outside ringing alarms, the activation
of which is reported to the Sheriff by third parties.
Persons who complete notification statements shall not have
that information disclosed to non-law enforcement department personnel.
