[HISTORY: Adopted by the Village Board of the Village of
Williams Bay as § 8.13 of the 2011 Code. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
No person shall give or send or cause to be given or sent in
any manner any emergency alarm of fire, burglary or emergency medical
service or other emergency which he knows to be false.
No alarm system within the Village shall be permitted by an
owner or by a tenant on the premises upon which an alarm system is
installed to give a false alarm.
The intent of this chapter is to prevent carelessness, improper
maintenance or any other causes which result in a false police alarm,
false fire alarm and/or false emergency medical service alarm from
privately owned alarm systems. Such false alarms require police, fire
and/or emergency medical service response which thereby creates unnecessary
expenses to the Village, increases risk of damage to property or injury
to persons and dilutes police protection, fire protection and emergency
medical service protection to other parts of the Village.
All owners of alarms and all tenants of premises upon which
alarm systems are installed shall at all times keep and maintain such
alarm systems in good working order to prevent false activation of
the alarm.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
Any privately owned device installed in or upon any real
estate premises within the Village which transmits an alarm signal
by any means to the Village Police Department, Fire Department or
Emergency Medical Service (Rescue) Squad.
Any alarm signal transmitted by an alarm system which necessitates
a response from either the Village Police Department, Fire Department
or Emergency Medical Service (Rescue) Squad when such response would
not otherwise be necessitated, but for such alarm, and an actual emergency
does not exist. "False alarm" includes both the intentional and inadvertent
sending of signals to the Village Police Department, Fire Department
or Emergency Medical Service (Rescue) Squad which results in a response
to a nonemergency situation. The determination of whether a nonemergency
situation exists will be made by the senior officer in charge of the
responding department at the time of such response.
A.
Permit required. A permit shall be required by July 1, 1989, for
each alarm system now installed on any real estate premises within
the Village. Permits shall be required prior to the installation of
any new alarm system after the effective date of this section.
B.
Permit application. Applications for all permits required under this
section shall be filed with the Village Clerk. The Chief of Police
shall review the form of the application to be certain all required
information is completely set forth. The Chief of Police shall sign
the application indicating its proper completion after which the Village
Clerk shall issue the permit upon payment of the permit fee.
C.
Terms of application. The application for an alarm system permit
shall contain the following information:
(1)
Name and complete address of applicant with day and night telephone
numbers of applicant.
(2)
Identification of applicant as either owner or tenant of the premises
upon which an alarm system is proposed to be installed.
(3)
Names, complete addresses and both daytime and nighttime telephone
numbers for all owners of the property and, if property is leased
or rented out, all tenants occupying same.
(4)
If property is a second home, the complete addresses (primary residential
and business) of all owners thereof, together with both day and night
telephone numbers.
(5)
A minimum of three local Village contact persons who would know the
location of the owners or tenants, if property is leased or rented,
or who hold keys to the property. Key holders listed must have the
ability to permit emergency entrance into the property by responding
Village departments.
D.
Permit fee. An annual permit fee as provided in the Village Fee Schedule
is required for permit years beginning July 1 each year or any portion
thereof, which shall be paid to the Village Clerk at the time of filing
such application and thereafter annually prior to the expiration of
the permit on June 30 of each year.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. II)]
E.
New application. A new permit application shall be required annually,
unless no changes have occurred since the filing of the previous application.
The fact that no changes have occurred shall be noted by the permit
holder at the time of the payment of the renewal fee to the Village
Clerk.
Any alarm system which as a part of its operation emits an outside
audible or visual alarm is prohibited in the Village.
The penalty provisions of § 1-4 of this Municipal Code shall apply to this chapter, except the following penalties shall apply to false alarms:
A.
Any person who shall violate the false alarm provisions of this chapter
shall for a first offense within any twelve-month period receive a
written notification warning of the offense from the applicable department
[Police Department, Fire Department, Emergency Medical Service (Rescue)
Squad] of the Village.
B.
Any person who shall violate the false alarm provisions of this chapter
shall for a second offense within any twelve-month period receive
a written notification warning of the offense from the applicable
department [Police Department, Fire Department, Emergency Medical
Service (Rescue) Squad] of the Village.
C.
Any person who shall violate the false alarm provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, as a first offense within any twelve-month period within which such person has received two previous written warnings as set forth in Subsections A and B, forfeit not less than $100 nor more than $500 for such offense, together with costs of prosecution, and in default of payment of such forfeiture and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail until such forfeiture and costs of prosecution are paid, but not exceeding six months.
D.
Any person who shall violate the false alarm provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, as a second offense within any twelve-month period within which such person has received two previous written warnings as set forth in Subsections A and B, forfeit not less than $200 nor more than $500 for such offense, together with costs of prosecution, and in default of payment of such forfeiture and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail until such forfeiture and costs of prosecution are paid, but not exceeding six months.
E.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, as a third offense within any twelve-month period within which such person has received two previous written warnings as set forth in Subsections A and B, forfeit not less than $300 nor more than $500 for such offense, together with costs of prosecution, and in default of payment of such forfeiture and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail until such forfeiture and costs of prosecution are paid, but not exceeding six months.
F.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, as a fourth offense within any twelve-month period within which such person has received two previous written warnings as set forth in Subsections A and B, forfeit not less than $400 nor more than $500 for such offense, together with costs of prosecution, and in default of payment of such forfeiture and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail until such forfeiture and costs of prosecution are paid, but not exceeding six months.
G.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, as a fifth offense or any additional number of offenses within any twelve-month period within which such person has received two previous written warnings as set forth in Subsections A and B, forfeit not less than $500 for such offense, together with costs of prosecution, and in default of payment of such forfeiture and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail until such forfeiture and costs of prosecution are paid, but not exceeding six months.
