[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township of Liberty: Art. I, 4-2-1990 by Ord. No. 1-90; Art. II, 7-13-1992 by Ord. No. 19-92. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fire Department — See Ch. 12.
Peace and good order — See Ch. 80.
[Adopted 4-2-1990 by Ord. No. 1-90]
No person shall willfully and maliciously ring or cause to be rung any bell or alarm of any fire company, ambulance association or police department, thereby giving or causing to be given a false alarm of fire, ambulance or other emergency call or shall willfully send any message of false alarm by telephone or by any other method or means.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall willfully cause a false alarm of any kind to be transmitted shall be subject to a fine of not more than $250 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 30 days, or both, such imprisonment and/or fine to be solely at the discretion of the Judge of the Warren County Municipal Court Special Civil Part.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall unintentionally cause to be transmitted by mechanical failure, automatic alarm or such other mechanical device a false alarm shall be subject to the following provisions:
A. 
The Fire Chief shall maintain a written log of all alarms received and equipment and/or personnel dispatched in response to said alarm, noting the date and time of each said alarm.
B. 
During each consecutive twelve-month period, it shall not be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation that maintains a fire alarm system in the Township of Liberty to transmit not more than three false alarms in connection with the maintenance and operation of said alarm system. All such persons, firms or corporations shall diligently maintain their fire alarm systems so as to avoid the transmission of such false alarms.
C. 
The following penalties shall be imposed for the transmission of false automatic fire alarms in excess of three false alarms:
(1) 
For all false alarms in excess of three but not in excess of six within a consecutive twelve-month period, there shall be a fine of $100 for each false alarm in excess of three during any such consecutive twelve-month period.
(2) 
For all false alarms in excess of six false alarms within a consecutive twelve-month period, there shall be a fine of $250 for each false alarm in excess of six during any such consecutive twelve-month period.
All fines payable under the terms of this Article shall be payable to the Warren County Court, Special Civil Part.
The Township Committee may from time to time promulgate rules and regulations supplementing this Article in order to provide for recordkeeping of fire alarm systems.
The Township of Liberty shall not be deemed to be under any duty or obligation with respect to the operation of any fire alarm system operated in the Township of Liberty. Nothing contained in this Article shall impose liability on the Township of Liberty, its employees or agents or individual members of the Liberty Township Fire Department concerning their response to alarms.
[Adopted 7-13-1992 by Ord. No. 19-92]
The purpose of this Article is to provide minimum standards and regulations for the use of privately installed burglary, robbery and fire alarm systems, to require registrations, to establish fines and to create an administrative apparatus.
As used in this Article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ALARM BUSINESS
Any business, operated by a person for a profit, which engages in the activity of altering, installing, leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing, monitoring or responding to a fire, burglar or holdup alarm system or which causes any of these activities to take place. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Article, the term "alarm business" shall not include a developer or homeowner who sells an alarm system as part of a sale or transfer of a residential dwelling unit.
ALARM DEVICE
Any type of alarm-activating equipment which provides warning of burglary, intrusion, fire, flood or like peril.
ALARM SYSTEM
A. 
An assembly of equipment and devices (or a single device such as a solid-state unit which plugs directly into a one-hundred-ten-volt AC line) arranged to signal the presence of a hazard, requiring urgent attention and to which police and/or fire fighters are expected to respond. In this Article, the term "alarm system" shall include but not be limited to:
(1) 
AUTOMATIC HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEMAn alarm system in which a signal transmission is initiated by the action of a robber.
(2) 
BURGLAR ALARM SYSTEMAn alarm system signaling a robbery or attempted robbery.
(3) 
HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEMAn alarm system signaling a robbery or attempted robbery.
(4) 
MANUAL HOLDUP ALARM SYSTEMAn alarm system in which the signal transmission is initiated by the direct action of the person attacked or by an observer of an attack.
(5) 
FIRE ALARM SYSTEMSAlarm systems which monitor temperature, humidity or any other condition of a fire-hazard nature and not directly related to the detection of any unauthorized intrusion into a premises or an attempted robbery at a premises.
B. 
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Article, the term "alarm system" shall not include self-contained battery or electrically powered smoke-detector units which give out an audible signal.
ALARM USER
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind in possession or control of any building, structure or facility wherein an alarm device or system is maintained.
FALSE ALARM
An alarm signal eliciting a response by police and/or fire fighters when a situation requiring a response by police and/or fire fighters does not in fact exist.
A. 
Registration shall be required for each alarm system within the Township of Liberty on the effective date of this Article. Users of systems in place on that date shall complete the registration form within 30 days after this Article takes effect.
B. 
Registration form. Any person utilizing an alarm system shall complete and file with the Clerk a registration form, which may be obtained from the Clerk, correctly containing the following information:
(1) 
The full name of the applicant and address, including an address description which will permit the appropriate municipal department to respond to the alarm.
(2) 
The common name of the alarm premises.
(3) 
The name and address of the person installing, maintaining and/or owning the system.
(4) 
A description of system operation, including, not by way of limitation, activation points of the system and the mechanism or mechanisms by which the system becomes activated.
(5) 
The name and address of the person or business entity monitoring and initially responding to an activation of the alarm system and the telephone number for such person or business entity.
(6) 
The names and addresses and telephone numbers of three persons to be contacted in case of alarm and/or malfunction.
(7) 
Any additional relevant information specifically requested by the Police Chief.
C. 
A registration fee of $10 shall be due and payable to the Township Clerk for each dwelling unit at the time the registration form is completed. Twenty-five dollars shall be due and payable for all applicants other than dwelling unit applicants. If two separate systems or a single system with two separate functions is involved, then separate fees shall be required for each such system or function, but in no instance shall this registration fee exceed $50.
D. 
If there has occurred any material change in the information previously submitted with respect to any alarm system by the alarm user, it shall be the duty of the alarm user, within 10 days of such material change, to file a supplemental or revised registration containing accurate current information.
E. 
Failure to register an alarm system in accordance with the requirements of this section shall result in a penalty of $50.
A. 
All alarm systems in commercial buildings shall be equipped with batteries.
B. 
Every burglar alarm must be provided with a device which will automatically set or shut off the alarm within 15 minutes after the term of activation.
C. 
Every burglar alarm system in a private dwelling shall be equipped with a time delay of at least 20 seconds.
D. 
If the alarm system is tied into, monitored by, responded to and/or serviced by a central station or answering service, upon activation of said alarm system, the central station or answering system shall verify the validity of the alarm prior to notifying the Fire Department of the same unless the alarm pertains to fire, in which case the Fire Department shall be notified immediately without verification.
E. 
No police, fire or other public department or official shall be responsible in any way for the resetting or maintenance of any alarm system.
F. 
A new homeowner, occupant or user possessing or using an alarm system shall be responsible for notifying and recompleting the application form relative to the system with the Clerk within 30 days of his, her or its purchase and/or transfer of title of the property.
G. 
The acceptance of any registration form by the municipality does not constitute the municipality's acceptance or approval of the alarm system involved and shall in no manner place upon the fire divisions, Township of Liberty or any other agency of the municipality any additional liabilities other than those statutorily incurred.
H. 
The provisions of this Article shall not apply to any alarm system installed on the property occupied by any township, county, state or federal government agency or office.
I. 
It shall be the responsibility of each and every alarm user to complete the registration form in detail, and it shall be the alarm user's responsibility to obtain the necessary information in order to satisfactorily and substantively provide the information required.
A. 
No person shall install an alarm system or use or possess an operative alarm system without complying with this Article.
B. 
No person owning, using or possessing an alarm system shall cause or permit the giving of repeated false alarms, whether intentional, accidental or otherwise.
In case of false alarms which summon the Police or Fire Department to investigate, the Clerk shall cause an investigation to be made and shall keep a record of such false alarms on file. Such records shall be prima facie evidence of the contents thereof.
A. 
Investigation and record of alarms. In the case of a false alarm, any person having knowledge thereof shall immediately notify the Fire Department.
B. 
Penalties. For such false alarms, the following penalties shall be applied:
(1) 
For the first and second false alarm in any given twelve-month period, a warning shall be issued.
(2) 
For the third false alarm in the same twelve-month period, a fine of $50 shall be paid to the township.
(3) 
For the fourth and subsequent false alarms in the same twelve-month period, a fine of $100 shall be paid to the township.