The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter,
shall have the meanings ascribed to them, except where the context
clearly indicates a different meaning:
ALARM ACTIVATION REPORT
A report prepared by the officer or member of the Police
Department or Fire Department who responded to an alarm event, which
documents the details and circumstances of the alarm event.
ALARM COMPANY
A person, company, firm, or corporation which has the contractual
agreement with the alarm user and is subject to the licensing requirements,
and engaged in selling, leasing, installing, servicing or monitoring
alarm systems; this entity shall be licensed in compliance with City,
county and state laws.
ALARM EVENT
An alarm system activation, to which law enforcement is requested
to respond.
ALARM PERMIT
A permit issued to an alarm user by the City allowing the
operation of an alarm system within the City.
ALARM SYSTEM
An assembly of equipment installed at a fixed location designed
to detect and/or verify an occurrence of an illegal or unauthorized
entry or other activity to which the Police or Fire Department is
requested to respond.
ALARM USER
Any person, corporation, partnership, proprietorship, governmental
or educational entity or any other entity owning, leasing, or operating
an alarm system, or on whose premises an alarm system is maintained
for the protection of such premises.
CANCELLATION
The alarm company provides notification that response by
a public safety department is no longer being requested. If cancellation
occurs prior to the Police or Fire Department arriving at the scene,
this is not a false alarm for the purpose of civil penalty, and no
penalty will be assessed.
CITY
The City of Plattsburgh or its officers or employees.
FALSE ALARM
The activation of any alarm system resulting in notification
of the Police or Fire Department, for which the responding Public
Safety Officer finds no evidence of criminal activity, fire, smoke,
carbon monoxide, heat or other threat of emergency of the kind for
which the alarm system was designed to give notice.
LOCAL ALARM
An alarm system that is not monitored by a remote monitoring
center.
PERMIT TERM
A thirty-six-month period beginning on the day and month
on which an alarm permit is issued.
RUNAWAY ALARM
An alarm system that produces repeated alarm activations
that do not appear to be caused by separate human action. Police or
Fire Department personnel may in its discretion notify the owner of
the alarm system and discontinue public safety responses to alarm
activations from what appears to be a runaway alarm until the system
is repaired.
All alarm users shall have the following duties:
A. Maintain the premises and the alarm system in a method that will
eliminate false alarms.
B. Provide the alarm company the permit number.
C. Respond or cause a representative/owner to respond to the alarm system's
location within a reasonable amount of time when notified by the Police
or Fire Department.
D. Not manually activate an alarm for any reason other than an occurrence
of an event that the alarm system was intended to report.
E. An alarm user must obtain a new permit and pay any associated fees
if there is a change in address or ownership of the location of the
alarm system.
F. An alarm user must keep current the renewal of the alarm permit.
G. Notify the alarm system monitoring business prior to activation of
an alarm for maintenance, test or instruction purposes.
H. Adjust the mechanism or causing the mechanism to be adjusted so that
an intrusion alarm signal audible on the exterior of an alarm site
will sound for no longer than 15 minutes after being activated, but
may be reactivated by a reset. Alarm systems installed prior to five
days after the effective date of this chapter shall be exempt from
this provision; and
I. Paying all fees and fines under this chapter within 90 days of the
date assessed.
The City of Plattsburgh Police and Fire Departments shall respond
to alarm notifications according to Department protocol.
In the interest of public safety, and unless permitted by law
or required by court order, all information contained in and gathered
through the alarm registration applications, no-response records,
applications for appeals and any other alarm records shall be held
in confidence by all employees and/or representatives of the City.
Alarm registration is not intended to, nor will it, create a
contract, duty or obligation, either expressed or implied, of response.
Any and all liability and consequential damage resulting from the
failure to respond to a notification is hereby disclaimed, and governmental
immunity as provided by law is retained. By applying for an alarm
registration, the alarm user acknowledges that the Plattsburgh Police
and/or Fire Department response may be influenced by factors such
as the availability of police units, priority of calls, weather conditions,
traffic conditions, emergency conditions, staffing levels and prior
response history.
The provisions of this chapter are severable. If a court determines
that a word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, subsection, section,
or other provision is invalid or that the application of any part
of the provision to any person or circumstance is invalid, the remaining
provisions and the application of those provisions to other persons
or circumstances are not affected by that decision.