[G.O. No. 1315, § 1]
The Town Council of the Town of Westfield hereby finds and declares
that:
(a)
Alarm systems and devices to detect and report emergencies such as
burglary and fire have been installed in numerous residential, commercial
and industrial premises in the Town.
(b)
Many alarm businesses have contracted with the owners and occupants
of premises in the Town for the sale or leasing, installation, operation
and maintenance of private alarm systems, which contracts provide
for the connection of the private alarm systems to central alarm panels
in the Town police headquarters serving both the fire and Police Departments
and other alarm business and property owners and occupants have installed
other types of alarm systems.
(c)
The Police Department and Fire Department have experienced numerous
false alarms which are a drain on manpower and a danger to those responding.
(d)
Unless the various systems and devices of the many alarm businesses
and individual property owners and occupants are uniformly regulated
there will be an unnecessary drain on the manpower, time, space facilities
and finances of the Town and its fire and Police Departments; deterioration
of the quality of, and inefficiency in, the service to persons subscribing
to the alarm services; and confusion or inequities among the alarm
businesses and persons and businesses protected by these devices in
the Town.
(e)
The public interest, therefore, requires the enactment of standards,
procedures and regulations to control the use of private emergency
alarm systems and devices in the Town.
[G.O. No. 1315, § 1]
The purpose of this chapter is to provide standards, procedures
and regulations for various types of burglar, fire and other private
alarm systems or warning devices which require a response by the Police
Department, Fire Department or other Town agency.
[G.O. No. 1315, § 1]
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any person, other
than municipal agencies, who operates, maintains or owns any private
alarm system or warning device designed to summon the police, Fire
Department or other Town agency to any location in response to the
signal of any type of emergency alarm. This chapter shall not be construed
to prohibit alarm companies from providing alarm services to other
offices within or without the Town so long as such services are not
connected to the central alarm panel at the police headquarters. No
person shall have premises protected by a private alarm system or
warning device unless the alarm system or warning device is registered
in accordance with this chapter.
As used in this chapter the following terms shall include the
meanings given herein:
Any business operated by any person, partnership, corporation,
or other entity which for profit engages in, manages, conducts or
performs any of the following activities: installing, leasing, connecting,
maintaining, adjusting, arranging, repairing, replacing, selling,
moving, servicing, or programming a private alarm system, or responding
to or monitoring such system, or which causes any of these activities
to take place or solicits for same.
A license issued by the Chief of Police, permitting a person,
partnership, corporation, or other entity to engage in, carry on,
perform, manage, conduct or solicit for an alarm business within the
boundaries of the Town of Westfield.
Any natural person whether he is the owner or principal of
an alarm business or employed thereby, who solicits, sells, installs,
leases, connects, arranges, maintains, services, repairs, replaces,
adjusts, inspects, moves, or programs any private alarm system within
the borders of the Town of Westfield.
A license issued by the Chief of Police, permitting a natural
person to solicit, install, connect, arrange, maintain, service, repair,
replace, adjust, inspect, move, or program any private alarm system
in any building, place on premises in the Town of Westfield or lease,
or sell such equipment within the Town of Westfield.
The component of the communications console in the Town police
headquarters which indicates the existence of an emergency.
Any device installed to service an improved property and
designed to sound an alarm by a bell, horn, siren or other noise making
instrument located upon the property where the device is installed
and audible beyond the limits of the property in the event of the
presence of fire, smoke, or similar hazards, unauthorized entry, the
commission of an unlawful act or a similar emergency.
The console or control panel located in the Town police headquarters
which gives either visible and/or audible indications of alarms.
The actuation of an alarm system or warning device by causes
other than those to which the alarm system or warning device was designed
or intended to respond, or the testing of alarms required by law or
practice without prior notice to the Police Department.
The person obtaining the license to install, operate and
maintain the alarm panel in the police headquarters.
Any person owning or leasing a private alarm system and holding
a permit issued pursuant to this chapter to (a) connect said system
to the alarm panel; or (b) to a special telephone; or (c) to a central
answering office; or (d) having a local alarm system.
Includes any partnership, corporation or association, or
any other legal entity, as well as a natural person.
Any system installed to serve an improved property and designed
or used for detection of fire, smoke or similar hazards, the detection
of unauthorized entry, the commission of an unlawful act, or the detection
of any one or more of the foregoing, or for reporting any emergency,
which system causes an audible alarm and/or communicates or causes
the communication of information to the alarm panel in the Town police
headquarters or to the police by telephone. A private alarm system
includes, but is not limited to, any one of the following types:
LOCAL ALARM SYSTEMWhich sounds an audible alarm but is not connected to the alarm panel at police headquarters and does not alert persons beyond the limits of the property by telephone or other means except by sound of the alarm.
LEASE LINE SYSTEMWhich provides direct connection by a telephone lease line from a specific location to the alarm panel with a visible or audible signal.
TAPE DIALER SYSTEMWhich automatically selects a telephone trunk line and then reproduces a prerecorded message to a special police telephone rather than to the alarm panel.
TELEPHONE CALL SYSTEMWhich automatically alerts a person, beyond the limits of the property served, who is engaged in the business of relaying information by telephone to the Town Police Department or Fire Department or reacting independently of the police or Fire Department.
