The purpose of this chapter is to provide standards and regulations
for various types of local alarms, intrusion, burglar, fire and other emergency
alarm devices whether by direct line radio, telephone or other means actuating
a device at police headquarters and requiring response thereto by the Police
Department, Fire Department or other municipal agencies of the Borough of
Norwood.
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any person who operates, maintains or owns any alarm device or local alarm designed to summon the police, Fire Department or other municipal agencies to any location in response to any type of alarm signal. The forms of this chapter shall in no way prohibit alarm companies from providing service by private source to other offices within or without the borough so long as such activity is not connected to an alarm console, except, however, that any person having a premises protected by an alarm device shall be responsible for registration thereof in accordance with §
73-4B without fee.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
ALARM CONSOLE
The console or control panel of devices producing a visual or audio
response or both and located within the municipal building of the borough.
ALARM DEVICE
Any device or mechanism used or designated for detection and warning
of unauthorized entry, fire smoke, flood or other perils, but specifically
excluding local alarm mechanism located entirely within enclosed residential
buildings.
ALARM INSTALLATION
Any alarm device or aggregate of alarm devices installed on or within
a single building or on or within more than one building or other structure
on a common site, at a specific location.
BURGLARY ALARM
Any police device actuated by a burglary, robbery or theft at a specific
location.
CENTRAL ALARM STATION
Any facility operated by a private firm that owns or leases a system
of emergency alarm devices, which facility is manned at all times by trained
operators employed to receive, record and validate alarm signals and to relay
information concerning such validated signals to the police or fire dispatch
room.
DIAL ALARM
Any alarm device which automatically or electronically selects a
telephone trunkline of the Police or Fire Department of the borough and then
delivers a signal or reproduces a prerecorded message to report a criminal
act or other emergency.
DIRECT ALARM
Any alarm device connected directly by leased telephone wires from
a specific location to the radio dispatch room at the municipal building.
FALSE ALARM
Any signal or message received by the Police or Fire Department and
to which either or both respond, which signal or message was directly or indirectly
brought about or produced by an alarm device of any type but not the result
of criminal activity or other emergency and not created by malfunction of
the alarm console within the building.
LICENSEE
Any private individual, partnership, corporation or firm which is
authorized by license of the municipality to maintain and operate the alarm
console, except for use by the Police and Fire Department.
LOCAL ALARM
Any alarm device which when actuated produces an audible or visible
signal designed to notify persons within audible or visible range of the signal
that a criminal act or other emergency is occurring or has occurred.
MUNICIPALITY
The Borough of Norwood or any department, agency or officer duly
authorized to act on behalf of the municipality.
PERMITTEE
Any private individual, partnership, corporation or firm which holds
a permit from the municipality to use an alarm device on premises owned or
leased by it.
The Borough of Norwood, its various departments, agencies and officials
shall be under no duty or obligation to any permittee or to any alarm console
licensee hereunder or to any other person or persons with respect to the adequacy,
operation, installation, repair or maintenance of the alarm console equipment
and any allied or related equipment or services and assumes no liability in
connection therewith. Upon issuance of a permit hereunder, the permit holder
hereby agrees to hold and save harmless the Borough of Norwood, its departments,
agencies and officials from any liability or damages suffered as a result
of or arising out of any improper or faulty installation, operation or maintenance
of any police or fire alarm system of the permittee or improper or faulty
installation operation or maintenance of the alarm console at the municipal
building.
The licensee for the alarm console in the municipal building shall be
selected in the following manner:
A. Any individual or firm which desires to become the licensee
of the alarm console of the borough under the provisions of this chapter shall
complete and file an application therefor with the Borough Clerk on forms
supplied by that office. The application shall be filed no later than the
date specified for filing in the public advertisement therefor or as posted
on the bulletin board in the municipal building.
B. Applications for licensee shall be accepted for a reasonable
period of time, as fixed by the Borough Council, immediately preceding the
expiration of the then-current license, or in the event of termination of
a licensee prior to its natural expiration date applications shall be accepted
at any time after the mailing of the notice of termination to the current
licensee.
C. The application shall require satisfactory proof of financial
ability to perform experienced service capability, past performance, proposed
charges and fees to subscribers and such other information as may be required
by the Borough Council.
D. The Borough Council or its duly authorized agent may
interview one or more applicants for the licensee, but shall not be required
to do so.
E. The license shall be awarded to the individual or firm
which the Borough Council shall determine, in its sole judgment, to be the
most advantageous and in the best interests of the borough, and the determination
of the Borough Council shall be conclusive. The Borough Council shall take
into consideration in making its determination the financial ability of the
applicant, the applicant's prior experience with other municipal and
governmental bodies, the applicant's service capability on a twenty-four-hour
basis, the proximity of the applicant's office to the municipal building
as bearing on the service and repair availability, the applicant's past
performance in this or other municipalities, proposed fees and charges to
subscribers and such other factors as the Borough Council shall deem relevant
to selecting the applicant which will be in the best interests of the borough.
F. The Borough Council, if it determines it to be in the
best interests of the borough, may grant a license to expire on December 31
of the then-current calender year rather than for a full three-year term.
The grant of license for this abbreviated term shall be with the consent of
the proposed licensee and subject to all other applicable provisions of this
chapter.
Local alarms shall be registered in accordance with §
73-4 of this chapter upon the payment of a registration fee of $10. All local alarms shall be equipped with a fifteen-minute automatic shutoff device. In addition thereto, those persons having local alarms may leave with the Police Department the names of residents in the Borough of Norwood who have keys to the premises or, in lieu thereof, a sealed key to the premises may be left with the Chief of Police of the Borough of Norwood, provided that in so doing the owner is willing to release the Borough of Norwood and the Police Department from any claims for damages or loss in connection with said entry. In the event of a malfunction of the equipment, and no person can be located to secure the device, then the owner shall be liable to pay a fine of $25. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, in the event that police have to respond to a false alarm, the false alarm fine prescribed in subsection §
73-8 shall also apply.
Any person, firm or corporation found guilty in the Municipal Court
of the Borough of Norwood for a violation for the terms of this chapter shall
be subject to a fine of not more than $200 or to such other penalty as shall
be prescribed for the violation of municipal ordinances, in the sole discretion
of the Municipal Magistrate.