As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "Alarm system" means a device or system of interconnected devices, including hardware and related appurtenances, mechanical or electrical, designed to give warning of activities, indicative of felony and criminal conduct requiring urgent attention and to which the police department is expected to respond, but does not include alarms installed in motor vehicles or fire alarms.
(2) "Alarm user" means the person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind in control of any building, structure, or facility or portion thereof, wherein an alarm system is maintained.
(3) "Annunciator" means that part of an alarm system, other than an automatic dialer, which communicates the fact that the system has been triggered.
(4) "Answering service" means a telephone answering service providing, among its services, the receiving, through trained employees, of emergency signals from alarm systems and the relaying of the message by live voice to the communications center of the Cookeville Police Department.
(5) "Audible annunciator" means an annunciator which gives alarm by means of a bell, siren, buzzer or similar sound producing device mounted at some location, other than wholly within a building; or which, when activated, is clearly audible at a distance of fifty feet or more outside of any building in which it is mounted.
(6) "Automatic dialer" means a device which is programmed to select a telephone number and deliver a warning message or signal over standard telephone lines using telephone voice communication equipment.
(7) "Chief" means the Chief of Police of the City of Cookeville, or a police officer under his jurisdiction designed by him to exercise any power or duty conferred under this chapter.
(8) "Department" means the City of Cookeville Police Department.
(9) "City of Cookeville telephone line" means a telephone line which rings or terminates on the premises of the City of Cookeville.
(10) "False alarm" means any activation of an alarm system upon or following which communication is made to the department that an alarm has been triggered, except alarms resulting from one of the following causes:
(a) Criminal activity or unauthorized entry,
(b) Earthquake causing structural damage to the protected premises,
(c) Tornado winds causing structural damage to the protected premises,
(d) Flooding of the protected premises due to overflow of natural drainage,
(e) A lightening bolt causing physical damage to the protected premises,
(f) Fire causing structural damage to the protected premises verified by the fire department,
(g) Telephone line malfunction verified in writing upon the request of the chief of police or his designee to the department by at least a first line telephone company supervisor within seven days of the occurrence.
If the alarm, when communicated to the department before an officer is dispatched to investigate is clearly identified to the department as resulting from authorized entry, authorized system test, or other non-criminal cause, it shall not be considered as a false alarm. If police units, responding to an alarm and checking the protected premises according to standard department operating procedure, do not discover any evidence of unauthorized entry or criminal activity, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the alarm is false.
(11) "Fiscal year" means June 30th through July 1st.
(12) "Hearing officer" means an employee of the City of Cookeville designated by the chief of police to act as an impartial arbitrator at hearings related to the enforcement of the herein chapter.
(13) "Malicious false alarm" means the intentional false reporting to the police of a police emergency condition, or the intentional setting off of an alarm which will cause another to report the signal to the police. However, this definition is not to include the testing of an alarm system when proper notification has been made to the police department.
(14) "On-premise annunciator" means an annunciator which is designed to give warning only to a person or persons on the protected premises, and which is neither an "audible" or "remote" annunciator as those terms are defined in this section.
(15) "Person" means any natural person or individual or any firm, partnership, association, limited partnership, sole proprietorship or corporation of any business entity.
(16) "Protected premises" means all of that contiguous area, including buildings, protected by a single alarm system and under common ownership and use.
(17) "Remote annunciator" means an annunciator located at a terminal not a part of the protected premises.
(18) "Sensor" means that part of an alarm system which is designed to detect the happenings of some event or existence of some condition indicative of criminal activity or unauthorized entry.
(19) "Special trunk line" means a telephone line leading into the communications center of the police department and having the primary purpose of handling emergency or messages originating either directly or through a central location from an automatic dialer.
(20) "Telephone company" means the publicly regulated industry which furnishes telephone communication services to the City of Cookeville.
(21) "Visual annunciator" means an annunciator installed entirely on the protected premises and which gives inaudible warning by means of a flashing light or other visible signal.
(1970 Code, § 13-502)