An intolerable amount of police resources are being expended in responding to alarms that have been activated other than by the commission of a crime. The purpose of this chapter is to avoid the current waste of police resources by reducing the number of false alarms to which the Department of Public Safety must respond.
Whenever used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ALARM BUSINESS Any business operated by a person or corporation that engages in the selling, leasing, maintaining, installing, repairing, altering, moving, replacing or servicing of an alarm device or system.
ALARM SYSTEM Any device or assembly of equipment and devices designed or intended to signal the presence of a situation requiring the urgent attention of the Department of Public Safety.
ALARM USER Any person on whose premises an alarm system is used, operated or maintained, except for alarm systems on motor vehicles.
AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE Any alarm system which automatically sends over the telephone lines, by direct connection or otherwise, a prerecorded voice message or coded signal indicating the existence of an emergency situation.
CENTRAL ALARM STATION Any facility operated by a private corporation that owns or leases a system of alarm devices, which facility is manned by operators who receive, record or validate alarm signals and relay information about such validated signals to the Department of Public Safety when appropriate.
CITY The City of Mount Vernon.
COMMISSIONER The Commissioner of Public Safety of the City of Mount Vernon.
COUNTY The County of Westchester.
FALSE ALARM The activation of an alarm system through mechanical failure, malfunction, improper installation, improper usage or the negligence of the owner or lessee of an alarm system or through the error or negligence of employees, guests or agents of the owner or lessee of the premises. It shall include all alarm signal activation incidents in which investigation by the Department of Public Safety reveals no evidence of the existence of an emergency condition. Those alarm signals that investigation reveals to have been triggered by physical damage to the protected premises as a result of hurricane, tornado, earthquake or other violent natural phenomenon and line trouble signals received via dedicated telephone lines are excluded from the definition of "false alarm."
PERSON Any person, partnership, corporation or unincorporated association.
PROPRIETARY SYSTEM Any alarm system that does not transmit signals to a monitoring system off premises or to a law enforcement agency but sounds at a control center on the protected premises and is under the supervision of the proprietor of the protected premises. When such an alarm monitors conditions that may require the response of the Department of Public Safety personnel, it becomes an alarm system as defined in this chapter.
All alarm business personnel who engage in selling, installing, servicing or maintaining alarm systems within the City, when engaged in their trade, shall carry a county alarm agent identification card issued pursuant to Article XV of Chapter 863 of the Laws of Westchester County.
The following shall be penalties for the offense of a violation of provisions of this chapter:
A. For operation or maintenance of an
alarm system without the automatic cutoff or standby power supply required by §
83-3A or
B, a fine of up to $50 for each day such offense continues.
B. For maintaining an automatic dialing device or system programmed to access a telephone number of the Department of Public Safety in violation of §
83-6A, a fine of $50 for each time a signal is received from such device.
C. For failure of
alarm business personnel to obtain an
alarm identification card as required by §
83-4, a fine of not less than $75 nor more than $250.
D. For false
alarms as defined in §
83-2, which may occur, the owner or lessee of the premises shall be subject to a fine of $100.
[Amended 9-13-2006, approved 9-14-2006]
If any section, paragraph, clause, phrase or provision of this chapter shall be adjudged invalid or held unconstitutional, the same shall not affect the validity of this chapter as a whole or any part or provision other than the part so decided to be invalid or unconstitutional.
This chapter shall take effect June 1, 1987.