A. The police department will not respond to property alarms, intrusion alarms, or burglar alarms unless they are verified alarms as defined by this section. In reporting such an alarm to the police department, an alarm company operator shall confirm that the alarm is a verified alarm. In the first instance, it shall be presumed that an alarm company operator who reports an alarm as a verified alarm has actually verified that alarm. Even if an alarm is verified, exigent circumstances may arise that prevent the police department from responding to verified alarm activations due to the availability of resources. The police department is under no legal duty or obligation whatsoever to respond to any property alarm, intrusion alarm, or burglary alarm activation, and may respond in its discretion, as police resources allow and as police department supervision and management deem appropriate.
B. An alarm company operator who reports a verified burglary alarm to the police department is required to maintain the evidence it used to verify that the burglary alarm activation, or a written report thereof, for not less than twelve (12) months from the date of the alarm activation, except as to recordings of remote audio or video surveillance, which must be maintained for not less than sixty (60) days. Because the police department will accept the alarm company operator's representation in the first instance that it verified the alarm before reporting it to the police department as a verified alarm, the police department shall have the right to audit the alarm company operator to ensure that the alarm company operator is not misrepresenting that fact to the police department. If the police department has probable cause to believe that an alarm company operator has misrepresented an unverified alarm to be a verified burglary alarm, it may send the alarm company operator written notice of the date and time of the reported verified burglary alarm and request the alarm company operator produce to the police department the evidence and/or report substantiating the verification of that burglary alarm activation. The alarm company operator shall produce the requested items to the police department within fourteen (14) days of the mailing of notice. Should the alarm company operator fail to maintain the evidence and/or report for the specified period of time or fail to produce the requested items to the police department, the alarm company operator will not be entitled to the presumption set forth in section A above. Should the alarm company operator intentionally destroy, fail to maintain for the time period specified above, or discard the evidence and/or report, or intentionally fail to produce the requested items to the police department that have been maintained and do exist, and in that event the alarm company operator shall be presumed to have made a fraudulent verification. Such presumption may be overcome by the alarm company operator producing evidence that in requesting a police response to the burglary alarm in issue, it did not know that the alarm was unverified.
C. Police department response to robbery alarms, panic alarms, and medic alarms does not require a prior verified response. Exigent circumstances may arise, however, that prevent the police department from responding to robbery, panic, and medic alarm activations due to the availability of resources. The police department is under no legal duty or obligation whatsoever to respond to any robbery alarm, panic alarm or medic alarm activation and may respond, in its discretion, as police resources allow and as police department supervision and management deem appropriate. (Ord. 2915, 2020)