[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 8-9-1995 by Ord. No. 95-02]
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.
This article shall not be applicable to any alarm that shall
not disturb a neighborhood or the public peace.
[Amended 8-9-1995 by Ord. No. 95-02]
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.
[Amended 10-12-2011 by Ord. No. 2011-11]
Any alarm that constitutes a public nuisance which shall be
verified by written complaint of any local neighborhood or resident
in the vicinity may be rendered inactive by the Chief of Police or
his 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 ten-percent penalty as provided by law.
[Amended 12-14-1994 by Ord. No. 94-5]
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 $600, 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 ten-percent 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.
[Adopted 6-13-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-03[1]]
[1]
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.
Provide a record of alarm devices located within the Township.
D.
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 interconnected to a telephone line and
preprogrammed to transmit the coded signal of an alarm to a dedicated
telephone trunk line or to dial a predetermined telephone number to
an alarm to a public safety agency.
A telephone line or lines which serve a public safety agency
which is dedicated to receiving transmissions from an automatic dialing
device.
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.
All persons owning or operating an alarm device upon real property
within the Township shall register such system with the Police Department
of the Township. Persons purchasing a property in the Township on
which an alarm device is located shall not continue to operate the
alarm device on the premises without registering the alarm device
under the new owner's name within 30 days after the person obtains
title to the property. Persons installing an alarm device after the
effective date of this chapter shall register such system prior to
its installation. A fee for the registration of an alarm device to
be paid by the registrant shall be in such amount as the Board of
Commissioners of the Township shall, by resolution, from time to time,
establish.
A.
All persons registering an alarm device with the Township shall furnish
such information as shall reasonably be requested, including, but
not limited to, the following:
(1)
The name of the owner or occupant of the real property upon which
the alarm device has been or is being installed. If the owner or occupant
shall be other than an individual, the owner or occupant shall also
provide the name of an individual responsible to the owner or occupant
for the operation of the alarm device (the "responsible agent").
(2)
The address of the real property upon which the alarm device has
been or is being installed by street name and number and the telephone
number of the owner, occupant and responsible agent.
(3)
Two backup or emergency telephone numbers where the owner, occupant
and responsible agent can be reached or through which contact can
be made when the real property is unoccupied, including the names
of the persons to which such numbers are assigned.
(4)
The name, address and telephone number of the vendor or installer
of the alarm device.
(5)
The name and address of the manufacturer of the alarm device.
(6)
A description of the alarm device installed, including the number
and type of devices used for the purpose of activating the system,
the location of such devices, the mechanism for automatically deactivating
the local alarm and the methodology used for transmitting or relaying
the signal to the public safety agencies.
(7)
The name, address and telephone number of any monitoring or central
station service to which the alarm device transmits a signal for relay
to public safety agencies.
B.
The Township Manager or Police Chief or Fire Chief, or other designee,
shall have the right to inspect any alarm device on the premises where
it is intended to function prior to its operation and to cause an
inspection of such system to be made at any time to determine whether
it is being used in conformity with the terms of the permit and the
provisions of this article. In order to facilitate such inspections,
the owner or responsible agent shall notify the Township when the
alarm device has been installed and is operational.
All persons owning or operating a registered alarm device upon real property within the Township shall renew such registration on an annual basis. On or about December 1 of each year, the Township Police Department shall send to the owner or operator of each registered alarm device a renewal application updating the registration information required pursuant to § 100-10 hereof. A renewal registration fee is imposed which shall be in such amount as the Board of Commissioners of the Township shall, by resolution, from time to time, establish. The registrant shall file the renewal application with and pay the renewal registration fee to the Township on or before January 15 of each year.
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 Township may revoke any permit issued pursuant to this article.
Such revocation may only be accomplished after giving written notice
to the permit holder and providing an opportunity for the permit holder
to be heard. If, after hearing, the Police Chief determines that the
alarm device has been installed, maintained or operated in violation
of the provisions of this article or any term or condition of said
permit or if there has been a failure to pay any fees including any
false alarm charges due under the provisions of this article, the
Police Chief shall revoke the permit.
The initial permit fee and annual permit fee shall entitle the
permit holder to unlimited actual alarm calls and three false alarm
calls in a consecutive twelve-month period. Each false alarm call
after three, in any consecutive twelve-month period, 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.
