This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the alarm system
act.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 1, adopted 1994)
The purpose of this chapter is to provide minimum standards
and regulations applicable to the burglar and/or fire alarm systems
located within the town’s municipal boundaries, including the
adoption of penalties for the violations thereof.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 2, adopted 1994)
The following words and phrases, when used in this act, shall
have the following meanings:
Any assembly of equipment, mechanical or electrical, arranged
to signal audibly, visibly or electronically, to a location outside
the structure(s) protected by the system, or to a monitoring station
which, in turn, notifies the appropriate agency, the occurrence of
an illegal entry or other activity requiring urgent attention to which
the police and/or the fire department is expected to respond.
The person, partnership, corporation, or any other entity
in control of any building, structure or facility, or any portion
thereof, which is intended to be protected by an alarm system.
A permit, issued by the town, allowing the operation of an
alarm system within the town.
The town chief of police or the town fire marshal.
Any alarm system which is designed to emit its signal by
bell, whistle, siren or other device to the immediate area near the
structure(s) which it protects. An audible alarm shall be considered
as such whether or not it transmits a signal to an additional location.
Any alarm system which is designed to emit its signal directly
to the police and/or fire department by means of dialing a telephone
number at the police and/or fire department and giving a tape recorded
message or synthesized voice message, intended to elicit a response.
An alarm system signal or message eliciting an urgent response
by the police and/or fire department when a situation requiring such
response by the police or fire does not, in fact, exist.
An alarm which has been activated as a result of testing or
repair shall not be considered as a false alarm if prior notification
has been given, the day of such repairs or test, to the agency which
the alarm would signal.
An alarm which has been activated shall not be considered as
a false alarm if the responding public safety division receives a
request to cancel and such request is made to the same location as
the request for service and is received prior to the dispatching of
any units or equipment.
An alarm system which, directly or indirectly, automatically
or manually uses a telephone line to transmit an alarm or message
upon activation of the alarm system, including automatic dialing devices
and building alarms connected to a private central operator who then
reports alarm calls to the police and/or fire department(s).
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 3, adopted 1994)
A.
No person
shall install, operate, or allow on the premises, under his control,
the operation of an alarm system unless such person first obtains
a valid alarm user permit. This requirement shall be the responsibility
of the owner unless the occupant of the property is different from
the owner, in which case it shall be the responsibility of both.
B.
If an
alarm user has more than one alarm system protecting two (2) or more
separate structures having different addresses, a separate permit
shall be required for each structure. All addresses (i.e., physical
location) shall be stated on the alarm user application.
C.
No posting
of the alarm user permit or the posting of any other evidence or registration
shall be required.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 4, adopted 1994)
A.
Applications
for alarm user permits shall be made on forms provided by the chief
of police or the fire marshal. The application shall include the name,
mailing address, physical location address (if different from mailing)
and telephone numbers, including both home and business phone numbers,
of the applicant and, if the applicant is not the property owner,
the name, address, and telephone number of the property owner to be
serviced by the alarm, and the central station phone number(s) of
applicant’s alarm company, if any.
B.
Each
application, which pertains to a residence or to a building, structure,
or facility which employs less than three (3) persons, shall provide
at least one other name and telephone number or a person to be contacted
in case of any emergency when the user is unavailable. An alarm monitoring
company name may be substituted for one of the required names if a
contractual arrangement exists between the user and the monitoring
company.
C.
Each
holder of an alarm user permit shall, within ten (10) days of any
change of the information on the alarm user permit application, notify
the town police chief and/or fire chief, in writing, of any and all
changes in the information on the application.
D.
Each application shall contain an agreement to submit to the assessment schedule provided for in subsection E of this section. Failure to agree to this provision shall be cause to deny issuance of an alarm user permit or, if one has been issued, shall be cause to revoke any such alarm user permit.
E.
The fees charged for permits issued pursuant to this act are as set forth in the fee schedule in appendix A of this code.
F.
The
information contained in an alarm user permit application shall be
securely maintained and restricted to inspection only by authorized
representative(s) of the town, including, but not limited to, the
chief of police and the fire marshal, town manager, town attorney
and/or town code enforcement officer.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 5, adopted 1994; editorially amended during 1998
codification; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
A.
Each
permit issued by the police and/or fire department shall be issued
on a calendar year basis.
B.
Each
permit holder shall obtain, from the police or fire department, a
renewal form not less than thirty (30) days before the expiration
of the alarm user permit.
C.
Renewal
of an alarm user permit shall be accomplished by completing and signing
the renewal form and returning it to the police department or the
fire department, with the appropriate renewal fee(s), prior to the
expiration of such permit. The signature shall certify the accuracy
of the information and shall be signed by the alarm system user or
any person listed on the application currently on file.
D.
All
alarm user permits shall be valid from the date of issuance through
December 31 of the calendar year in which they are issued.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 6, adopted 1994; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
A.
No alarm
user permit shall be issued or renewed for any alarm system which
can be activated by a failure in the electrical current from the utility.
Systems shall be equipped with a secondary power source which shall
hold the alarm readiness for a minimum of one hundred twenty (120)
minutes or shall be rendered inoperable by such power interruption.
B.
No alarm
user permit shall be issued or renewed for any audible alarm or automatic
dialer alarm system designed to detect an intrusion or a fire which
does not have an automatic cutoff which discontinues the alarm signal
within fifteen (15) minutes after activation.
C.
No alarm
user permit shall be issued or renewed for any new installation of
an automatic dialer alarm system.
D.
All
equipment shall meet standards as set forth by the State of New Mexico
and the appropriate chiefs and the applicants may be required to submit
evidence of the reliability and suitability of the equipment to be
installed.
E.
The
chief of police or fire marshal may require that repairs or adjustments
be made whenever said chief or marshal has determined that such are
necessary to assure proper operation. The user’s permit shall
be suspended if such repairs or adjustments are not made within the
time allowed by said chief or marshal. Such time period shall be reasonable
given the circumstances but cost shall not be a valid factor in failing
to repair or adjust by the permitted time.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 7, adopted 1994)
A.
Whenever
an alarm is activated, requiring an emergency response to the location,
a police officer or firefighter, who responded to the alarm address,
shall inspect the areas protected by the system and shall determine
whether the emergency response was, in fact, required as indicated
by the alarm system.
B.
If the
inspecting police officer or firefighter determines the signal to
be a false alarm, the police officer or firefighter shall make a report
of the false alarm to their respective chief. A warning citation will
be issued to the holder of the permit.
C.
If two
(2) false alarms are received in any twenty-four (24) hour period
from the same location, it shall be presumed that any subsequent alarm
received is also a false alarm. The user’s permit will be temporarily
suspended until such time as any of the parties specified in the alarm
permit responds satisfactorily to the appropriate chief as to the
reason for the false alarms.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 8, adopted 1994)
A.
Each
false alarm response shall constitute a separate false alarm, whether
or not police or fire response is elicited. Any response to a false
alarm to a town address, by another agency in lieu of response by
town agencies, as a result of mutual aid or automatic response agreements,
shall constitute a false alarm.
B.
Upon installation of the alarm, the alarm holder will have a sixty (60) day grace period for training employees, and no false alarms shall be assessed during this grace period. Thereafter, service fees shall be assessed, by the appropriate chief or his designee, in the amount set forth in the fee schedule in appendix A of this code.
1.
No person, who is either the holder of an alarm user permit or responsible for said alarm system operation, shall negligently allow said alarm to register seven (7) or more false alarms within a calendar year. Any person who does shall pay a service fee in the amount set forth in the fee schedule in appendix A of this code, for residential or commercial structures, plus their permit(s) shall be canceled and they shall no longer be allowed to have an active system.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 9, adopted 1994; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)
A.
An alarm
user permit shall be reviewed for revocation, by the appropriate chief
or his designee, for any of the following reasons:
1.
Any
false alarms in excess of seven (7) false alarms in a calendar year;
2.
Failure to remit the service fee required by section 8.04.090 of this chapter within thirty (30) days of receipt of invoice;
3.
Falsification
of any information on an application for issuance or renewal of an
alarm user permit;
B.
After
review, the appropriate chief may recommend, to the town manager,
revocation of the alarm user permit for up to one year. The town manager
shall approve or disapprove the recommendation and notify the permit
holder accordingly.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 10, adopted 1994)
The issuance of any permit(s), in conjunction with this chapter
shall not constitute acceptance, by the town, of any liability to
maintain any equipment, to answer alarms, or for anything in connection
therewith. The town specifically reserves the right to not respond
to an alarm received from an alarm system which does not hold a valid
alarm user permit or which has been revoked.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 12, adopted 1994)
Whoever violates any section of this chapter shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred
dollars ($500.00) and/or imprisonment of not more than one hundred
seventy-nine (179) days, in addition to the fees specified above in
the specific sections.
(Ordinance 93-12, sec. 13, adopted 1994)
