The purpose of this chapter is to provide standards
and regulations for various types of intrusion, burglar, fire and
other emergency alarm devices whether by direct line, radio, telephone
or other means actuating a device at the police headquarters of the
Borough of Closter and requiring response thereto by the Police Department,
the Fire Department or other municipal agencies.
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 or Fire Department or other municipal agencies to any location in response to any type of alarm signal. The terms of this chapter shall in no way prohibit alarm companies from providing service by private source to other offices within or without the Borough of Closter so long as such activity is not connected to the alarm console; except, however, that any person having a premises protected by an alarm device shall still be responsible for the registration thereof in accordance with §
65-4B 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 designed for detection and
warning of unauthorized entry, fire, smoke, flood or other perils
but specifically excluding local alarm mechanisms 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 alarm 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.
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 Municipal
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 Departments.
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 Closter 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.
TELEPHONE ALARM DEVICES[Amended 8-11-1982 by Ord. No. 1982:435]
Any of the following alarm devices:
A.
DIAL ALARMAny alarm device which automatically or electronically selects a telephone trunk line of the Police or Fire Department of the municipality and thereafter delivers a signal or reproduces a prerecorded message to report a criminal act or other emergency.
B.
DIRECT TELEPHONE ALARMAny alarm device, mechanism, system, practice or procedure by which a criminal act or other emergency is reported by telephone to the municipality by means of a central alarm station, private alarm company, telephone operator or by any person other than the owner or lessee of the premises from which the criminal act or other emergency call emanates.
The Borough of Closter, 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 Closter, its
departments, agencies and officials from any liability or damages
suffered as a result of or arising out of improper or faulty installation,
operation or maintenance of any police or fire alarm system of the
permittee or the 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 municipality 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 licenses shall be accepted for a
reasonable period of time, as fixed by the governing body, immediately
preceding the expiration of the then-current license, or in the event
of termination of a license 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, experience, service, capability, past
performance, proposed charges and fees to subscribers and such other
information as may be required by the governing body.
D. The governing body or its duly authorized agent may
interview one or more applicants for the license, but shall not be
required to do so.
E. The license shall be awarded to the individual or
firm which the governing body shall determine, in its sole judgment,
to be the most advantageous and in the best interests of the municipality,
and the determination of the governing body shall be conclusive. The
governing body 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 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 governing body shall deem relevant to selecting the applicant
which will be in the best interests of the municipality.
F. The governing body, if it determines it to be in the
best interests of the municipality, may grant a license to expire
on December 31 of the then-current calendar year rather than for a
full three-year term. The grant of a license for this abbreviated
term shall be with the consent of the proposed licensee and subject
to all other applicable provisions of this chapter.
Dial alarm devices shall be permitted only under
the following conditions:
A. All owners of dial alarms shall register the same in the manner set forth in §
65-4B of this chapter.
B. No dial alarm devices shall be finally registered
until a test alarm has been made by the owner in conjunction with
the Chief of Police or his or her representatives.
C. No dial alarm devices shall be permitted unless of a type approved by the Chief of Police in accordance with the rules promulgated under §
65-10 of this chapter. Any such equipment must have the approval of the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company or its successor.
D. All dial alarms shall be coded to dial a special separate
number, which number can be obtained from the Chief of Police, and
no dial alarm shall be coded to dial the number of the general police
switchboard of the Borough of Closter.
E. Any dial alarm device shall be coded, as well, to
notify a relative, neighbor or other third party who will be disclosed
in the registration of said equipment as required by this chapter.
F. All dial alarm devices shall be capable of disconnection
to enable the owner to call the police switchboard to indicate that
a false alarm has occurred.
G. For dial alarm devices, the owner shall pay the Borough of Closter an annual fee as set forth in Chapter
A301, Fees and Deposits, to cover the cost of registration and testing and to amortize the cost of the special phone line or lines required in the Borough Hall along with ancillary tape devices of the police desk necessitated by these systems.
[Amended 7-26-1989 by Ord. No. 1989:578; 1-3-1994 by Ord. No. 1993:663]
H. Owners of dial alarm devices shall be governed by the false alarm procedures and penalties set forth in §
65-8B of this chapter.
I. In the event that any person has a dial alarm device
in existence at the time of the passage of this chapter, he or she
shall have 30 days in which to pay the annual fee. Any person not
so complying shall be liable to a penalty payable to the Borough of
Closter in the amount of $50.
J. Any person having a dial alarm device which dials
the general police number, upon discovery thereof, shall receive notice,
in writing, from the Chief of Police requiring the owner to comply
with the terms of this chapter, and if the owner fails to do so within
30 days of the receipt of said notice, he or she shall be liable to
pay to the Borough of Closter a penalty of $50.
K. The contents of any recorded message from a dial alarm
device must be intelligible and in a format approved by the Chief
of Police; no such message shall be transmitted more than three times
as a result of a single stimulus of the mechanism; messages shall
not exceed 15 seconds, and the time gap between delivery shall be
approximately 10 seconds.
L. The sensory mechanism of such devices shall be adjusted
so as to suppress false indications and not to be actuated by impulses
due to pressure changes in water pipes, short flashes of light, wind
noises, rattling or vibration of doors or windows or other forces
unrelated to general alarms.
M. All components of such equipment must be maintained
by the owner in good repair, and when evidence exists that there has
been failure to comply with the operational requirements of this chapter,
the Chief of Police is then authorized to demand that such device
be disconnected until such time as compliance with current requirements
is reestablished.
N. Self-dialers shall be limited to not more than three
repeats on an alarm (sixty-minute period) and a message not to exceed
20 seconds in duration.
[Added 11-24-1980 by Ord. No. 1980:397]
[Amended 11-24-1980 by Ord. No. 1980:397; 7-26-1989 by Ord. No. 1989:578; 1-3-1994 by Ord. No. 1993:663; 9-25-1996 by Ord. No. 1996:730; 5-23-3012 by Ord. No.
2012:1124]
Local alarms shall be registered in accordance with §
65-4 of this chapter upon the payment of a registration fee as shall be set forth in Chapter
A301, Fees and Deposits. All local burglar alarms shall be equipped with a five-minute automatic shutoff device; all local fire alarms shall be exempt from this requirement and shall ring until turned off by either a member of the Fire Department or another authorized individual. In addition thereto, those persons having local alarms shall be required to leave with the Police Department the names of two residents in the Borough of Closter who have keys to the premises, and in lieu thereof, this requirement can be fulfilled by leaving a sealed key to the premises with the Chief of Police of the Borough of Closter, provided that in so doing the owner is willing to release the Borough of Closter and the Police Department from any claims to 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 penalty of $25. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, in the event that police have to respond to a false alarm, the false alarm penalty prescribed in §
65-8B shall also apply.
The Mayor and Council may from time to time
promulgate rules and regulations supplementing this chapter in order
to provide for recordkeeping and efficient management of said system.
[Amended 11-24-1980 by Ord. No. 1980:397]
A. Any permittee who fails to pay the annual fee as provided
by this chapter within 10 days of the due date shall be charged a
penalty of $10.
[Amended 7-26-1989 by Ord. No. 1989:578]
B. Any person, firm or corporation found guilty in Municipal Court of the Borough of Closter for violation of the terms of this chapter shall be subject to a penalty as set forth in Chapter
1, General Provisions, Article
II, Violations and Penalties, of this Code.
[Amended 1-3-1994 by Ord. No. 1993:663]
[Added 7-26-1989 by Ord. No. 1989:578; 1-3-1994 by Ord. No. 1993:663]
Notwithstanding the fees for permits established by other provisions of this chapter, where any individual, partnership, corporation or firm has two or more alarm devices which are received, recorded and validated at a central alarm station from where the alarm is relayed to the Borough of Closter, then and in that event said individual partnership, corporation or firm shall pay an annual fee as set forth in Chapter
A301, Fees and Deposits, for all alarm devices connected to each central alarm station.
[Added 7-26-1995 by Ord. No. 1995:699]
The penalties for false fire alarms, that is,
alarms to which the Fire Department of Closter is expected to respond,
shall be as follows:
A. For the second false fire alarm in the same calendar
year there shall be a fine of $20.
B. For the third false fire alarm in the same calendar
year there shall be a fine of $35.
C. For the fourth false fire alarm in the same calendar
year there shall be a fine of $50.
D. For the fifth false fire alarm in the same calendar
year there shall be a fine of $75.
E. For the sixth and any subsequent false fire alarm
in the same calendar year there shall be a fine of $100.