[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Lyme 12-28-1990 by Ord. No. 90-5. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Amended 12-10-2019 by Ord. No. 2019-4]
The purpose of this chapter is to provide minimum standards and regulation applicable to burglar, holdup and fire alarm systems and alarm users as defined here within.
As used in this chapter, 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, or responding to burglar, holdup or fire alarm systems, or involved in any way or causing any of these activities to take place.
ALARM DEVICE
Any device which, when activated by a criminal act, fire or other emergency, calls for police or fire department response through the following methods:
A. 
Transmits a signal to Valley Shore Emergency Communications.
B. 
Transmits a signal to a central station which transmits the alarm to Troop F State Police or Valley Shore.
C. 
Alarm system that causes an audible signal to which police or fire services are expected to respond.
ALARM USER
Any person on whose premises an alarm is maintained within the Town of Lyme except for alarm systems on motor vehicles or proprietary systems. Excluded from this chapter are persons who use an alarm to alert others on the premises in which the alarm is located.
AUTOMATIC DIAL ALARM
A telephone device or attachment that mechanically or electronically selects a telephone line to police or fire service dispatchers, at which time it activates a prerecorded voice message to report a criminal act, fire or other emergency calling for police or fire department response. Excluded are devices that send digital-coded signal to the emergency dispatcher.
CENTRAL STATION
A system in which the operation of electrical protection circuits and devices is signaled automatically to, recorded in, maintained and supervised from a central station having trained operators and guarded at all times.
DIRECT CONNECT
Alarm system which has the capability of transmitting system signals to and receiving them at the Valley Shore emergency dispatch center.
A. 
All alarms should be directly connected into the emergency dispatch center at Valley Shore Emergency Communications.
B. 
The alarm user or alarm business is responsible to secure all approvals for system tie-in to the dispatch center.
C. 
All fire alarm systems shall be registered with the Fire Marshal's office.
D. 
All police alarms (includes holdup alarms) shall be registered with the Connecticut State Police at Westbrook Barracks (Troop F) during normal business hours.
E. 
The alarm business is responsible to furnish all equipment to interface with the Valley Shore alarm receiving system.
F. 
All alarms shall be of the digital signal type.
G. 
Automatic dialer alarms are prohibited in the Town of Lyme. No new dialer shall be installed after December 1, 1991.
A. 
Each alarm user at his/her expense is required to maintain all components of the alarm device in good working order at all times to ensure that the sensory components are adjusted properly to retard false activations.
B. 
The maintenance of the system will ensure that false activations will not occur due to short flashes of light, wind, noises, vehicular noise or other forces unrelated to genuine alarms.
A. 
Testing of alarm systems shall be done during normal business hours.
B. 
Notification to appropriate alarm termination station shall be done prior to testing of system.
[Amended 12-10-2019 by Ord. No. 2019-4]
A. 
Automatic dialer alarms are prohibited in the Town of Lyme.
B. 
Exterior audible devices. Unless required by law, no alarm device which produces an exterior audible signal shall be installed unless its operation is automatically restricted to a maximum of 30 minutes.
C. 
Central station alarms must register with Valley Shore for call back purposes.
D. 
Direct-connected digital-coded signals direct to Valley Shore Emergency Communications: this is the preferred system.
A. 
Alarm registration shall be accomplished by filling out a form obtained from the Lyme Fire Marshal or the Lyme Town Hall.
B. 
Information on this form will determine exact location of the property protected by the alarm, names and phone numbers of key holders for the protected property and type of alarm. Copies of this form will be sent to Valley Shore Emergency Communications, Connecticut State Police, Westbrook Barracks, and the Lyme Fire Marshal's office.
C. 
Central station alarms shall register the type of business organization (individual proprietorship, partnership, corporation), the principal place of business, location of office answering the alarms and a list of alarm users within the Town of Lyme.
D. 
All individual alarm users must register their alarm within the provisions in this section.
[Added effective 12-10-1994 by Ord. No. 94-1a]
There shall be no more than two false alarms from any one alarm device during a twelve-month period.
Enforcement and administration of this chapter shall be the function of the Fire Marshal's office and the Town of Lyme.
A. 
The Town may institute civil proceedings to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
B. 
Each day of such failure to comply with or notify of any changes constitutes a separate violation.
C. 
Failure to pay any penalty imposed under this section within 30 days of notice of violation will cause an additional penalty of $10 per day commencing on that day.
[Added effective 12-10-1994 by Ord. No. 94-1a]
Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall be subject to a fine of $50 for each violation.
The invalidity of any part or parts of this chapter shall not affect the validity of the remaining parts.