[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township of West Amwell 10-6-2004 by Ord. No. 16-2004. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
The occupants of numerous residential and commercial structures within the Township have determined the necessity to make provisions for the installation of alarm systems upon their premises for emergencies such as burglary, medical and fire.
B. 
It is recognized by the Township that there have been a substantial amount of false alarms associated with these alarm systems resulting in a situation that, if not rectified, will lead to an unnecessary drain upon the manpower, time, space, facilities and finances of the Township, its police, rescue and fire departments and the deterioration of the quality of services to persons subscribing to alarm system services and inequities among the alarm businesses operating in the Township.
C. 
The public interest and safety, therefore, require the enactment of rules, regulations, standards and procedures to regulate and control the alarm service in the Township.
This chapter has as its purpose the regulation and control of the installation, operation and maintenance of private alarm systems within the Township in order to insure that the quality of alarm services rendered to the public will be maintained at a high level and to alleviate conditions otherwise leading to an unnecessary drain on the manpower, time, space, facilities and finances of the Township of West Amwell and its police, rescue and fire departments.
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to any person, other than the municipality, who sells, installs, operates, maintains or owns any alarm device or local alarm designed to summon the Police Department, rescue/first aid services, Fire Department or other municipal agency to any location in response to any type of alarm signal.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ALARM BUSINESS
Any business operated by a person, partnership, corporation, etc., for profit which engages in the activity of altering, leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling servicing, monitoring or responding to a burglar, medical or fire alarm system, or which cause any of these activities to take place. Excluded from this definition, however, are retail establishments which sell alarm systems over the counter and do not service, monitor or maintain same.
ALARM DEVICE
Any type of alarm activating equipment which provides warning of burglary, intrusion, medical emergency, fire, flood or like peril.
ALARM SYSTEM
The installation in one or more structures of one or more alarm devices for the express purpose of giving visual and/or audible warning of any emergency such as burglary, intrusion, medical emergency, fire, flood or like peril.
ALARM USER
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind in control of a building, structure or facility wherein an alarm device or system is maintained.
FALSE ALARM
An alarm signal eliciting a response by police, emergency medical services or fire fighters or other public officials when a situation requiring response by police, emergency medical services or fire fighters or other public officials does not in fact exist (but excluding an alarm signal caused by violent conditions of nature or other extraordinary circumstances not reasonably subject to control by the alarm system business or alarm user).
INDEPENDENT SMOKE DETECTOR
A device giving any audible alarm indicating smoke and/or fire within a structure and not connected to an alarm system or to any external sound device outside a structure.
A. 
No person shall install, permit to be installed, operate or maintain any alarm system unless the alarm system has been registered with the West Amwell Township Police Department. This registration will only be a one-time registration. There will be no fee for alarm registration. An alarm system shall be deemed registered at such time as a registration form supplied by the Police Department is completed as to all information requested herein. The following information must be provided on the registration form:
(1) 
The name, address, telephone number of the owner of the property upon which the alarm system is installed;
(2) 
The name and telephone number of the installer of the system;
(3) 
The type of alarm system (burglary, panic, fire, medical, other);
(4) 
A list of names, addresses and telephone numbers of the person(s) to be contacted in the event of any alarm or in an emergency situation determined by the Police Department.
(5) 
The names, addresses and telephone numbers of the persons or company maintaining and monitoring the alarm system.
B. 
If any changes occur regarding the contents of the alarm registration form submitted and on file with the Police Department, it shall be the duty of the user of the alarm system, within 10 days of such changes(s), to file a revised registration containing the accurate, current information. The sale of a property with an alarm system shall be deemed an information change and the name, address and telephone number of the new owner shall be filed with the Police Department.
A. 
Each alarm system shall be installed utilizing discrete circuitry for multipurpose alarm systems to insure appropriate emergency response.
B. 
Any alarm system which requires for its operation electricity supplied by a public utility may be equipped with a battery rendering it operable in the event of power outage if so desired by the property owner. Such battery backup system shall only be required for any alarm system which will trigger itself automatically in the event of a power outage.
C. 
Every burglar and fire alarm system installed in residential one- and two-family dwelling units and having audible devices installed on the exterior shall be provided with a device which will automatically shut off the exterior alarm after 15 minutes of activation. Every burglar alarm system installed in nonresidential buildings and having audible devices installed on the exterior shall be provided with a device which will automatically shut off the exterior alarm after 15 minutes of activation.
D. 
Every burglar and fire alarm system not fitted with an external key switch shall be equipped with a time delay of at least 15 seconds which may include an audible signal of the same length of time, said time delay to be designed to prevent accidental activation of the system. The fifteen-second signal, if utilized, shall be audible within the structure only and not externally.
E. 
No alarm system may be directly connected to the West Amwell Township Police or Fire Departments, the Lambertville New Hope Ambulance and Rescue Squad, or Hunterdon County Communications, the central dispatch center for police, fire and rescue departments.
F. 
No person shall install, cause to be installed, or permit to be installed any alarm device, by whatever name known, which automatically selects a telephone line dedicated to the Police Department, Fire Department, rescue squad or Hunterdon County Communications for the purpose of playing a recorded message to report any emergency.
G. 
In the event the alarm system, other than fire or holdup alarm system, is tied into and/or serviced by a central station or answering service, upon activation of said alarm, the central station or answering service shall verify the validity of the alarm prior to notifying the Police Department of same.
H. 
No police, fire, rescue or other public department official shall be responsible in any way for the resetting or maintenance of any alarm system.
I. 
No alarm business or person owning, using or possessing an alarm system shall cause or permit the giving of repeated false alarms, whether intentional, accidental or otherwise.
J. 
Any alarm business or person owning, using or possessing an alarm system who may want to know about a response to any alarm by the Police Department shall contact the Department. The Police Department will not contact automatically any such person or answering service to advise them concerning the result of the Department's response to any false alarm. This subsection also pertains to fire and rescue departments.
K. 
An alarm business having knowledge of same shall be responsible for notifying the Police Department when one of its customers using or possessing an alarm system sells his/her/their property. The alarm business shall notify the Police Department as to the name of the new owner and whether or not the new owner is continuing with an alarm device or system within the property.
A homeowner possessing or using an alarm system shall be responsible for notifying the Police Department of the sale of his/her/their property. The homeowner shall notify the Police Department as to the name of the new owner and whether or not the new owner is continuing with an alarm system with the property.
All information submitted in compliance with this chapter shall be held in the strictest confidence and shall be deemed a record exempt from public disclosure pursuant to state statute. Any violation of confidentiality shall be deemed a violation of this chapter.
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any alarm system installed on property occupied by any Township, county, state or federal agency or office, nor to an independent smoke detector as defined in this chapter.
A. 
Any person who fails to register or annually review said registration form required by the provisions of this chapter is subject to the penalties set forth under § 52-13.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I).
B. 
Any owner or user of an alarm system which experiences more than 10 false alarms within a one-year period shall be required to disconnect said system for the remainder of the one-year period or 90 days, whichever is greater; provided that the alarm system is not utilized by a school, hospital or bank. Any owners or users of alarm systems for schools, hospitals or banks will continue to have false alarms answered and responded to by the Township police, fire and rescue departments. All false alarms over 10, however, for said owners and users shall be subject to continued fines of $200 after seven false alarms.
C. 
Any owner or user of an alarm system who installs such a system not in compliance with this chapter is subject to the penalties set forth under § 52-13; additionally said owner or user may be required to remove such an alarm system.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I).
D. 
Any owner or user of an alarm system shall be notified by the Police Department once two false alarms have occurred with said system.
Any person who intentionally causes the giving of a false alarm shall be in violation of this chapter and subject to the penalties set forth under § 52-13 for each offense. In addition, the person who intentionally causes the giving of a false alarm may also be prosecuted criminally under the statutes of the New Jersey Criminal Code.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,250, a term of imprisonment not exceeding 90 days or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days, or any combination thereof.
Enforcement of this chapter will be carried out by the Township Police Department. The highest ranking officer in the Police Department will be responsible for issuance of warning notices and subsequently Township ordinance summonses to those in violation. The summons will include a court date which will only be used in the event of a not-guilty plea. The ranking officer when issuing the summons will indicate the number of offense(s) (i.e., first offense, second offense, etc.) on the complaint. The summons will always be accompanied by a form letter also indicating the reason for the summons and the number of offense(s).