All burglar and fire alarms installed in any building in Spring Garden Township and all antitheft alarms installed in any vehicles parked in Spring Garden Township shall be equipped with an automatic cutoff device that stops the alarm after it sounds continuously for 1/2 hour of public warning.
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners of the Township of Spring Garden as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 12-29-1980 by Ord. No. 123 (Ch. 13, Part 10, of the 1994 Code); amended in its entirety 2-12-2025 by Ord. No. 2025-02]
This article shall not be applicable to any alarm that shall not disturb a neighborhood or the public peace.
All existing burglar and fire alarms and all antitheft alarms installed in any vehicle parked in Spring Garden Township that sound a public alarm disturbing local residents of the neighborhood or the public peace for more than one hour are hereby declared to be a public nuisance.
Any alarm that constitutes a public nuisance which shall be verified by a written complaint of any local neighborhood or resident in the vicinity may be rendered inactive by the Chief of Police or their designated agent. The said written verification shall contain name and address of the person complaining and request the Chief to terminate the alarm nuisance. The writing shall verify that the alarm has sounded for more than one hour, and the locality of the person having control or charge of the building cannot be found.
The cost of terminating the alarm shall be billed to the person owning or in control of the building in which the alarm is located, together with a 10% penalty as provided by law.
Any person, corporation or business entity that shall violate any of the provisions of this article shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $500, plus costs, for each violation and, upon failure to pay the fine and costs, to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 30 days. In addition, failure of the person to pay the cost to abate the nuisance together with the 10% penalty provided herein, which shall likewise be collected by suit brought in the name of the Township before the Magisterial District Judge or court having proper jurisdiction thereof in like manner as debts of like amount may be sued for under any existing laws.
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Editor’s Note: This ordinance also repealed former Art. II, Alarm Systems, adopted 10-12-1983 by Ord. No. 158, as amended.
The intent of this article is to:
A.
Protect the emergency services of the Township from nuisance and provide the maximum possible efficiency of service to alarm device users.
B.
Encourage the proper maintenance, care and management of alarm devices within the Township.
C.
Promote the general peace, welfare and safety of the Township.
The following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this article:
A communication to a public safety agency indicating a crime, fire or other emergency warranting immediate action by that public safety agency has occurred or is occurring.
A device designated to automatically transmit an alarm:
A device which is connected to a phone or computer and is preprogrammed to transmit the coded signal of an alarm to a dedicated preprogrammed telephone number to alarm to a public safety agency.
The activation of an alarm device to which a public safety agency responds when a crime, fire or other emergency has not occurred.
An individual, corporation, partnership, incorporated association or other similar entity.
Any police department, fire department or emergency management service/ambulance company.
Spring Garden Township, York County, Pennsylvania.
It shall be unlawful for any person to own, operate, install or maintain an alarm device which automatically transmits an alarm telephonically or otherwise directly to any public safety agency. All calls for emergency services initiated by an alarm device shall be relayed by county control to the Township.
All local alarms owned, operated, installed or maintained within the Township shall be equipped with a mechanism which will automatically deactivate the signal emission from the alarm device after 10 minutes of operation.
All persons owning or operating an alarm device within the Township shall have the following duties and responsibilities with respect to such system:
A.
To keep and maintain the system in good operating condition, order and repair.
B.
To keep and maintain at the site of the alarm device a complete set of written operating instructions for such system.
C.
To provide training and instruction to individuals customarily occupying the site of the alarm device in its proper operation.
D.
To cooperate with the Township in preventing or minimizing the number of false alarms originating from the site of the alarm device.
The person in control of the alarm is permitted up to three false alarms in a calendar year. Each false alarm call after three, in the calendar year shall require the payment of a fee in an amount as established from time to time by resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the Township to cover the expense of responding to said false alarm.
Any person who should violate any of the provisions of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $300 and costs of prosecution and, in default of payment of such fines and costs, to imprisonment for not more than 30 days, provided that each violation of any provision of this article and each day the same is continued shall be deemed a separate offense.