For the purpose of this Chapter, certain words and phrases used herein are defined as follows:
"Alarm agent"
shall mean any person who is employed by an alarm business, either directly or indirectly, whose duties include any of the following: selling, maintaining, leasing, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, moving, or installing on any building, place, or premises any alarm system.
"Alarm business"
shall mean any person engaged in selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, monitoring, moving, or installing any alarm system or causing to be sold, maintained, serviced, repaired, altered, replaced, monitored, moved, or installed an alarm system in or on any building, place, or premises.
"Alarm system"
shall mean any device designed for the detection of an unauthorized entry on premises or for altering others of the commission of an unlawful act, which, when actuated, emits a visible or audible signal beyond the business premises or residential unit or dwelling protected by such device, or transmits a signal or message to another location.
"Audible alarm"
shall mean a device designed for the detection of an unauthorized entry on premises and which, when actuated, generates an audible sound beyond the business premises or residential unit or dwelling protected by such device, and which device is not monitored by an alarm business.
"False alarm"
shall mean an activated alarm or alarm signal from any alarm system which is responded to by the Police Department but for which no emergency situation exists or where there is no evidence to indicate that there was an emergency situation as determined by the responding officer. "False alarm" shall not include those alarms actuated by extraordinary meteorological, atmospheric, or other conditions or means as determined by the Police Chief.
"Fiscal year"
shall mean the period from and including July 1st of any year to and including June 30th of the following year.
"Person"
shall mean any individual, or entity, as defined in Section 1.12.150 of this Code.
"Proprietor alarm"
shall mean an alarm which is not monitored or serviced by an alarm business.
"Subscriber"
shall mean a person contracting with an alarm business for the leasing, servicing, or maintaining of an alarm system.
"Visible"
shall mean capable of being seen or perceived by the naked eye.
(Prior code § 3960; added by Ord. No. 1149CCS, adopted 3/25/80)
(a) 
False Alarm Reports Required. A report shall be filed with the Police Chief for each alarm transmitted to the Police Department, which report shall contain the name, address, and telephone number of the subscriber, in addition to whether or not the alarm was a "false alarm" as defined in Section 3.56.010(e) of this Code.
(b) 
Audible Alarm Requirements.
(1) 
Every person owning or maintaining an audible alarm shall post a notice containing the name and telephone number of the persons to be notified to render repairs or services during any hour of the day or night the burglar alarm is activated. Such notice shall be posted near the alarm in such a position so as to be legible from the ground-level adjacent to the building. In addition to the posting requirements referred to in this subsection, the occupant of the premises upon which an audible alarm is installed shall notify the Police Department of the name and telephone number at which he or she may be reached at any time of the day or night.
(2) 
The owner of any audible alarm or subscriber to an alarm service shall be responsible for deactivating any alarm within one hour after notification or after reasonable efforts have been made to notify the owner or alarm business that such alarm has been activated and is ringing. The ringing of an alarm for a period in excess of one hour after such notification or efforts of notification have been made is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and subject to misdemeanor prosecution or summary abatement.
(3) 
Every audible alarm installed after April 24, 1980, shall have a timing device which automatically shuts off the alarm within fifteen minutes after it is activated.
(4) 
In addition to the provisions of subsections (a)(1) and (2) above, every audible alarm without such timing device and installed prior to April 24, 1980, shall be required to have such a device installed if an activated audible alarm is not deactivated within one hour after notification to or after reasonable efforts to notify the owner or alarm business thereof. Violations of the provisions of subsections (b)(1) through (4), inclusive, of this Section shall be punishable as misdemeanors pursuant to the provisions of Section 1.08.010 of this Code.
(c) 
Alarm Agents: Permits in Possession. Every person engaged in the business of making, repairing, servicing, altering, replacing, removing, or installing a burglar alarm system shall carry on his or her person at all times while so engaged a valid alarm agent permit as issued by the State of California and shall display said permit to any police officer upon request.
(d) 
Exemption. The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to audible alarms affixed to motor vehicles.
(Prior code § 3961; added by Ord. No. 1149CCS, adopted 3/25/80)
No subscriber shall operate an alarm system without having first registered such alarm system with the Santa Monica Police Department and paid the required registration fee. The Police Department may require that registrants provide information to the City to protect public safety and aid response efforts, including, but not limited to, information about residents that are elderly or disabled, firearms at the property, and animals that may require special handling.
(Added by Ord. No. 2431CCS § 1, adopted 7/9/13)
Pre-Recorded Messages. No person shall use or cause to be used any telephone device or telephone attachment that automatically selects any public telephone trunk line of the City other than that line designated by the Police Chief to report a burglary or emergency by prerecorded message.
(Prior code § 3963; added by Ord. No. 1149CCS, adopted 3/25/80)
A subscriber shall pay a false alarm response fine to the City upon the occurrence of two or more false alarms received from the subscriber's alarm system within a fiscal year. The amount of the fine and any associated late fees may be established by resolution of the City Council.
The subscriber of an alarm system or property owner or lessor who has caused an alarm to be installed shall be declared to be maintaining a public nuisance in the event that more than four false alarms are recorded at the same location during a single fiscal year, and shall be prosecuted pursuant to the provisions of Section 1.08.010 of this Code.
The Chief of Police shall cause to be issued a monthly bill for the unpaid fines and fee accrued during the billing period and any prior periods. Such bill shall be due and payable within fifteen days after the billing date.
All remedies shall be cumulative, and the use of one or more remedies by the City shall not bar the use of any other remedy for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this Chapter. The amount of any fines and fees shall be deemed a debt to the City. An action may be commenced in the name of the City in any court of competent jurisdiction for the amount of any delinquent debt thirty days after it becomes due and payable. Payment of any fines or fees shall not prohibit criminal prosecution for the violation of any of the provisions of this Chapter.
(Prior code § 3964; amended by Ord. No. 1440CCS, adopted 4/26/88; Ord. No. 2431CCS § 2, adopted 7/9/13)
(a) 
The Chief of Police may notify any subscriber of an alarm system or property owner, lessor or person who has caused such a system to be installed that the Police Department will not respond to any alarm at the location where the alarm has been installed when:
(1) 
Any fines and fees required by Section 3.56.050 have not been paid and are past due. The notice shall indicate that service response shall not be resumed until thirty days after payment of the fines and fees required by Section 3.56.050; or
(2) 
There are more than four false alarms at the location during any fiscal year. The notice shall indicate that response shall not be resumed for a period of not less than sixty days and only after submission to and approval by the Police Department of an alarm plan to reduce the number of false alarms to less than four in any fiscal year.
(b) 
Any person receiving a notice under subsection (a) may request a hearing in accordance with the procedures set forth in Chapter 6.16 of this Code. The notice shall inform the subscriber, property owner, lessor, or person of the hearing rights set forth in Chapter 6.16. No hearing request shall be deemed timely filed and no hearing shall be held unless within the time period to request a hearing, the person requesting the hearings deposits with the City Treasurer money in the amount of any unpaid and past due fines and fees under Section 3.56.050. If as a result of the hearing it is determined that the City was not entitled to the fines and fees in the amount of the deposit, the City shall refund to the subscriber, property owner, or lessor the amount of the excess fines and fees.
(c) 
Nothing in this Chapter shall create or be construed to create a duty upon the Police Department or City to respond to any alarm whether or not the alarm is false. An alarm, like any other request for service from the Police Department, may be responded to within the resources of the Police Department and other responses required by the Police Department at the time of the alarm.
(Prior code § 3965; added by Ord. No. 1269CCS, adopted 2/8/83; amended by Ord. No. 2431CCS § 4, adopted 7/9/13)