Cross References — Offenses against public administration, §230.075 et seq.; false reports generally, §230.115.
State Law Reference — Police regulations, §77.570,
RSMo.
[R.O. 2012 §200.030; Ord. No. 6664 §§1 — 3, 2-6-1978]
A.
The
Chief of Police shall be authorized to sell all unclaimed personal
property, except guns, recovered by the Police Department. Items shall
be retained by the Police Department for at least sixty (60) days
from the date of possession. If a property is not claimed by its owner
within sixty (60) days, the Chief of Police may sell the property
at public auction.
B.
All
sales of personal property shall be at public auction. The City Clerk
shall cause notice of said sale to the published and local newspaper
at least seven (7) days prior to the sale.
C.
The
proceeds of said sale, after deducting expenses of the sale, shall
be deposited in the General Revenue Fund of the City of Excelsior
Springs, and shall be accompanied by an itemized list of expenses
of the sale, and a verified list identifying the articles sold, the
sale price, and name of the purchaser.
D.
All
property which comes into the custody of the Police Department or
Municipal Court as the result of any seizure and which has not been
forfeited pursuant to any other provisions of law or returned to the
claimant shall be disposed of in accordance with Section 542.301,
RSMo.
[Ord. No. 21-04-01, 4-5-2021]
A.
ALARM AGENT
ALARM BUSINESS
ALARM SUBSCRIBER
ALARM SYSTEM
AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE
CALENDAR WEEKEND
CALENDAR YEAR
FALSE ALARM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
TELEPHONE COMPANY
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shall begin on Friday at 5:00 P.M. and end on Monday at 8:00
A.M.
Each twelve (12) month period beginning on January first
(1st) and ending on December thirty-first (31st).
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:
A natural or man-made catastrophe, or an act of God. Such events
include tornadoes, floods, earthquakes or other similarly violent
conditions.
Vandalism causing physical damage to the premises.
Telephone line outage.
Electrical service interruptions and/or power outages.
Attempted entry of a location causing visible, physical or other
evidence of damage to the location.
Severe weather with severe lightning, etc.
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.
Multiple false alarms on any one (1) system occurring within
a calendar weekend shall be considered as one (1) false alarm.
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.
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 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 by the City Manager upon not less than five (5) days'
notice to the alarm subscriber of the date and time of the City Manager's
appeal hearing.
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 following partial expense reimbursement fines:
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.