[CC 1977 §2-74; Ord. No. 1012, 5-2-1973; Ord. No. 1236 §§1 — 3, 2-20-1980]
A. 
The Police force is hereby established which shall consist of the Chief of Police and such additional Police Officers with such ranks as may be authorized by the Board of Aldermen.
B. 
All Police Officers shall be subject to the personnel rules of the City of Harrisonville and the Standard Operating Procedures of the Police Department and shall familiarize themselves with same and shall in all ways conform with same.
[Ord. No. 3040 §§1 — 2, 6-16-2008; Ord. No. 3196 §1, 11-21-2011]
A. 
Definitions. The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this Section, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this Section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
ALARM AGENT
Any person who is employed by an alarm business, either directly or indirectly, whose duties include any of the following: Selling, maintaining, leasing, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, moving or installing on or in any building, structure, or facility any alarm system.
ALARM BUSINESS
Includes any business engaged in any of the activities of selling, installing, servicing, altering, leasing, repairing, maintaining, replacing, moving, monitoring, or responding to an alarm system and causing any of these activities to take place.
ALARM SUBSCRIBER
Any person that leases, contracts for, buys or otherwise obtains and operates an alarm system for the purpose of obtaining a response to the alarm from the Police, and on whose premises an alarm system is maintained, excluding audible alarms on motor vehicles.
ALARM SYSTEM
Any device which is designed or used for the detection of burglary or attempted burglary or for alerting others of the commission of a robbery or attempted robbery within a building, structure or facility, or both, and which emits a sound or transmits a signal or message when activated for the purpose of deterring the intruder or notifying another person of the happening or both.
AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE
Refers to an alarm system which automatically sends over the telephone switching network, a prerecorded voice message or coded signal indicating existence of an unlawful act to which a Police response is requested.
CALENDAR WEEKEND
Shall begin on Friday at 5:00 P.M. and end on Monday at 8:00 A.M.
CALENDAR YEAR
Each twelve (12) month period beginning on January first (1st) and ending on December thirty-first (31st).
FALSE ALARM
The activation of a burglary or robbery alarm, whereby the Police are summoned to a location, and neither of these crimes is occurring, nor is there any evidence of these crimes having occurred or having been attempted. An alarm will not be considered a false alarm if it is determined by the Police Department that the alarm was caused by:
1. 
A natural or man-made catastrophe, or an act of God. Such events include tornadoes, floods, earthquakes or other similarly violent conditions.
2. 
Vandalism causing physical damage to the premises.
3. 
Telephone line outage.
4. 
Electrical service interruptions and/or power outages.
5. 
Attempted entry of a location causing visible, physical or other evidence of damage to the location.
6. 
Severe weather with severe lightning, etc.
7. 
Multiple false alarms on any one (1) system, occurring within a twenty-four (24) hour period of time, shall be considered as one (1) false alarm.
8. 
Multiple false alarms on any one (1) system occurring within a calendar weekend shall be considered as one (1) false alarm.
9. 
The test of a local alarm system by a licensed alarm business agent or employee who is present at the premises servicing, repairing or installing the alarm when such testing does not result in the alarm being activated for an uninterrupted period exceeding sixty (60) seconds and when the Police Department has been notified of the test.
TELEPHONE COMPANY
The utility that furnishes telephone service to the City area.
B. 
Alarm Reporting. All reported alarm soundings, either directly or by relay from an alarm business, shall be done in a manner prescribed by the Chief of Police.
C. 
False Alarms — Warning, Reimbursement To City, Suspension Of Service, Appeal. The following limits are established for each alarm system:
1. 
Warning notice. Upon receipt of the third (3rd) false alarm within a calendar year, a warning notice shall be issued by the Police Department to the alarm subscriber.
2. 
Subsequent false alarms. Upon receipt of subsequent false alarms within a calendar year following the warning, a partial expense reimbursement fine to the City in accordance with the schedule presented in Subsection (I)(1) of this Section shall be paid by the alarm subscriber for each such false alarm. Failure to pay the partial expense reimbursement fine within twenty-one (21) days of demand by the Harrisonville Police Department will result in all alarm service otherwise rendered by the Police Department to be suspended until payment is made.
3. 
Multiple false alarms in twenty-four (24) hours. Any multiple false alarms set off in a twenty-four (24) hour period of time shall be considered as one (1) false alarm per the definition of false alarm.
4. 
Grace period. For the purposes of this Section, the schedule of partial reimbursement fines of false alarms shall become effective thirty (30) days after installation of a new alarm system or the date of the first (1st) false alarm reported by the system, whichever occurs first. During this thirty (30) day grace period, false alarms will not be chargeable under this Section. This is for newly installed alarm systems only.
5. 
Appeal from fine. An alarm subscriber who desires to appeal a partial expense reimbursement fine imposed by this Section shall submit a written request for a hearing to the Chief of Police within ten (10) days of receipt of the notice that such a fine is due. The Chief of Police or designee following not less than ten (10) days' notice to the alarm subscriber of the date of the appeal hearing shall then meet and consider the appeal. Appeals of the Chief of Police's decision shall be heard at the next available meeting of the Public Safety Committee.
D. 
False Alarms — Reinstatement After Warning.
1. 
The warning provided in Subsection (C)(2) prior to the hearing described in Subsection (C)(5) shall be withdrawn after the Police Department is shown proof of inspection and service by a licensed service company, and is satisfied that the fault has been corrected. The Police Department may designate the licensed company for inspection and service.
2. 
On the effective date of reinstatement of the alarm service, the false alarm count shall revert to zero.
E. 
Limitations And Restrictions.
1. 
Automatic dialing devices. No person shall use, operate, or install any device that will, upon activation, automatically initiate a telephone call and deliver a recorded alarm message to any telephone of a customer of the public telephone company, without the prior written consent of such customer.
F. 
Automatic Dialing Devices. It shall be unlawful for any person to install or have installed within a residence, business, or any building within the City limits an automatic dialing device or tape dialer that when activated sends a prerecorded voice message over a telephone cable or wire to the Police Department by use of the City's 911 emergency telephone service or by use of any other telephone number assigned to the Police Department.
G. 
Local Alarm Systems — Length Of Alarm. Each alarm system with any exterior sound-producing device including, but not limited to, gongs, buzzers, sirens, bells, or horns shall be equipped with a time device which limits the operation of such exterior sound-producing device to fifteen (15) minutes or less for residential alarms and thirty (30) minutes for property not zoned residential. However, older model alarm systems that do not have the capability to automatically discontinue the audible alarm sound within the appropriate time frame shall not be subject to the requirement of this Section.
H. 
Violations.
1. 
It shall be unlawful for any person, corporation, or partnership to violate any provisions of this Chapter except that it shall not be deemed unlawful to accumulate more than three (3) false alarms in any calendar year. Such accumulation shall be dealt with as set out in Subsection (I)(1).
2. 
The accumulation of more than three (3) false alarms shall not be a criminal violation and shall not be punishable in Municipal Court but failure to pay the partial expense reimbursement shall be such a violation.
3. 
It shall not be a defense that the warning referenced in Subsection (C)(2) is not given or is not received.
4. 
If the alarm subscriber is other than an individual, the corporation or partnership may be charged with the ordinance violation and be summoned into court by delivering said summons to an officer, partner, or managing or general agent, or by leaving it at any business office of the corporation or partnership with the person having charge thereof.
I. 
Penalties.
1. 
Any alarm subscriber with an alarm system which has recorded more than three (3) false alarms within a calendar year shall be subjected to the partial expense reimbursement fines as established in the City's Comprehensive Schedule of Fees.[2]
[Ord. No. 3650, 5-1-2023]
[2]
Editor's Note: The Comprehensive Schedule of Fees is on file in the City offices.
2. 
Any person convicted of violating any provision of this Section shall, unless the specific penalties of Subsection (I)(1) of this Section apply, be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500.00), or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days, or both such fine and imprisonment.
[1]
Cross Reference — False report, §215.380.