[Adopted 7-15-1996 as Ord. No. 96-39]
For the purpose of this article, the following
terms shall have the meanings indicated:
Any type of alarm-actuating equipment, excluding motor vehicle
alarms, which provides warning of intrusion, fire, smoke, carbon monoxide,
burglary, floor or like perils, including direct alarms and any audible
alarms, and any device connected to the municipal alarm system.
Any person or party who installs or otherwise prepares for
use in the City of Schenectady. This shall not include the business
of selling parts or whole alarms only and not being involved in the
act of installing or repairing in any form.
The installation in 1 or more buildings of 1 or more alarm
devices for the express purpose of giving visual or audible warning,
or both, of an emergency such as a burglary, intrusion, carbon monoxide,
fire, smoke, flood or like perils.
A device that emits an audible signal from the premises that
it is designed to protect.
A remote alarm monitoring station, other than the Bureau
of Signal Control or the Schenectady Municipal Central Dispatch Center,
away from the protected premises or building.
That component installed in the Schenectady Central Dispatch
Center containing alarm indications and designations, capable of receiving
notification from activated fire alarm systems.
An alarm signal necessitating response by the Police or Fire
Department where an emergency situation does not exist.
A false alarm in excess of more than four false alarms within
the last 12 months. "Persistent false alarms" shall not include those
false alarms caused by acts of God, natural disaster or other causes
not under the immediate control of the owner/lessee. Malfunctions
of alarm equipment or the conduct of tenants, residents, patients,
customers, students or other persons within a building shall be considered
and deemed as under the control of the owner/lessee.
Any natural person, partnership, corporation, association
or other legal entity.
Playback tape recorders that have prerecorded messages and
which dial predetermined numbers and deliver a taped voice message.
No alarm installer and/or repairer shall do
business in the City of Schenectady without being licensed to do so
by the State of New York, as such licensing is set forth in Article
6-D, § 69-1, of the General Business Law. Each person so
licensed by the state shall, prior to doing business in the City of
Schenectady, file a copy of said license with the Building Inspector's
office and thereafter within 30 days of the renewal thereof. Residents
or owners who install their own system upon their own premises are
not required to be licensed.
A.
At the time of installation, each alarm equipment
installer shall furnish to the purchaser for whom the protective alarm
device or system has been installed written information as to how
service can be obtained, including telephone numbers to call for service.
B.
Each owner of an alarm system shall be responsible
for having the device either repaired or disconnected within a reasonable
time after the owner learns, either from the owner's own sources or
from notification by a Department of the City of Schenectady, that
the alarm system device is not working properly.
C.
It shall be the responsibility of an alarm supplier
and/or installer to inform the purchaser of any alarm system or device
of the need for, as the case may be, a permit for the system in the
case of a fire alarm connected to the municipal fire alarm system,
and in such event an alarm supplier and/or installer shall not complete
the installation of the device or system until such permit has been
obtained, and the requirement in the City of Schenectady that responsible
party contact information must either be displayed upon a building
or be available at a central dispatch station.
D.
It shall be the responsibility of any central dispatch
station doing business in the City of Schenectady to inform the owner/lessee
of any alarm system of the need for the maintenance of an accurate
listing of at least three persons to contact who are authorized to
respond to an emergency and open the place where the alarm system
is installed to reset the alarm in the event of a false alarm.
A.
Each owner of an alarm system which, by means of an
audible alarm at the premises, or by transmission of an alarm signal
to a facility which can reasonably be foreseen to contact emergency
personnel in the event of an alarm, shall provide a method for emergency
personnel to contact responsible persons in the event of an alarm
at the building or place to be protected. At a minimum, an owner may
comply with the above requirement by either:
(1)
Displaying at or near the main entrance to the building
the name and telephone number of a private central dispatch station
or other nonmunicipal twenty-four-hours-a-day manned facility, when
such station has been provided by the owner with the name, address
and telephone number of at least three persons to contact who are
authorized to respond to an emergency and open the place where the
alarm system is installed to reset the alarm; or
(2)
Displaying at or near the main entrance to the building
the name and telephone numbers of at least three persons to contact
who are authorized to respond to an emergency and open the place where
the alarm system is installed to reset the alarm.
B.
It shall be unlawful for an owner of an alarm system
to operate, place or leave an alarm system in an armed status in the
City of Schenectady without complying with the above requirement.
Tape voiced dialers shall not terminate at or
transmit to the Police Department, Fire Department or Public Safety
Dispatch Unit of the City of Schenectady over any emergency or business
line.
It shall be unlawful for any person to do or
perform any act to cause an alarm device to activate for the purpose
of causing a false alarm to be generated. If, in the performance of
any action that is otherwise unlawful, a false alarm shall be thereby
generated, it shall be no defense to a prosecution under this section
that such action was not done solely for the purpose of generating
an alarm, nor shall it be a defense to a prosecution under this section
that there was no actual knowledge that an alarm system would or could
have been activated by such action when it could have been reasonably
foreseen that an alarm might thereby have been generated.
No owner/lessee of a building shall have in
operation an audible alarm thereon unless such alarm shall be capable
of and shall automatically terminate its operation within 45 minutes
of its being activated and reset itself, except sprinkler alarms driven
by moving water.
No test of an alarm system or device shall be
conducted which causes a call or alarm to be made to emergency personnel
unless previously authorized by the Police Department, Fire Department
or Public Safety Dispatch Unit, as the case may be. The owner/lessee
or his agent must notify the Public Safely Dispatch Unit beforehand
of the request for testing of a system in person or in a writing,
signed by the owner/lessee.
The Schenectady Police Department and the City
of Schenectady shall take every reasonable precaution to assure that
emergency alarm signals received by the City are given appropriate
and immediate attention. Nevertheless, the City shall not be liable
for any defects in operation of emergency alarm systems, for any failure
to respond appropriately, for any errant response upon receipt of
any emergency alarm signal nor for the failure or defect of any licensee,
owner or installer pursuant to the sections of this chapter in respect
to installation, operation or maintenance of equipment, the transmission
of alarm signals or messages or the relaying of such signals or messages.
In the event that the City finds it necessary to disconnect or disregard
a defective or repetitively false alarm or signaling device, the City
shall incur no liability therefrom.
A.
Any person guilty of causing a false alarm shall be
guilty of a violation and shall be subject to a fine of not less than
$100 nor more than $5,000 and imprisonment of up to 15 days, or by
both such fine and imprisonment.
B.
Any person guilty of causing a persistent false alarm
shall be guilty of a violation and shall be subject to a fine of not
less than $500 nor more than $1,000 and imprisonment of up to 90 days,
or by both such fine and imprisonment.
C.
Any person who constructs, installs, repairs or otherwise
creates or installs alarm systems or devices for use in the City of
Schenectady without a valid New York State license therefor shall
be guilty of a violation and shall be subject to a fine of not more
than $1,000.
D.
All emergency alarm systems that connect to the municipal
fire alarm system shall be subject to an annual permit fee of $100.
Any owner/lessee who is charged a permit fee by this article for connection
to the municipal fire alarm system shall pay said fee, within 30 days
after notice, to the Bureau of Signal Control. If said fee is not
paid within the thirty-day period after notice, the owner/lessee shall
be in violation of this article and shall be subject to an administrative
fine of not more than $250 in addition to such fee.
E.
The owner/lessee of any place where there is a persistent
false alarm shall be charged an administrative fee by the City of
Schenectady of $25 for the first persistent false alarm, $50 for the
second persistent false alarm, $75 for the third persistent false
alarm and $125 for each and every subsequent persistent false alarm.
If such fee is not paid within 30 days of demand therefor, the amount
of such fee, certified to the finance department by the department
of law, shall be charged against the land upon which the fee was charged
as a municipal lien and, if unpaid, such fee shall be added to the
tax rolls as an assessment or levied as a special tax against said
property or recovered in a civil suit against the person to which
the fee demand was issued.
A.
Every violation of this article shall constitute a
general violation of the ordinances of the City of Schenectady and
shall be punishable as prescribed by law unless a specific penalty
is prescribed within a section.
B.
Every person aggrieved by the application of any provision
of this article relating to fees, permits or administrative fines
may appeal, in writing, to the Office of the Mayor, which shall render
a decision thereon within 90 days.
C.
The application of administrative fines or fees shall
be by the Department of Law upon request and certification of the
Departments of Police, Fire or Public Safety Dispatch, as the case
may be.
This article shall take effect immediately.
Alarm systems installed or in use at the effective date of this article
shall conform to the requirements of this article within 120 days
after the effective date hereof.
If any part or provision of this article or
the application thereof to any person or circumstance be adjudged
invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall
be confined in its operation to the part, provision or application
directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall
have been rendered and shall not affect or impair the validity of
the remainder of this article or the application thereof to other
persons or circumstances, and the Council hereby declares that it
would have enacted this article or the remainder thereof had the invalidity
of such provision or application thereof been apparent.
