(a) No person shall fail to maintain equipment under his control designed to give
alarms of any type at less than the level of maintenance necessary to prevent false alarms from being emitted.
(b) The Chief of Police or his designee shall issue warnings and order the assessment of administrative fees against the user and/or provider upon the schedules provided in Section 715.10(c) and (d). The administrative fee is a partial reimbursement to the City for the cost of receiving and responding to the false alarm. The number of false alarms shall be counted within the twelve (12) month calendar year. The Chief of Police shall issue the guidelines which he intends to follow in the administration of this section.
(c) The following fee schedule shall apply for false alarms in R Residential
Number | Action Taken |
1 and 2 | Warning letter to user /provider, no charge |
3 through 6 | $25.00 fee to user and/or provider |
7 through 12 | $50.00 fee to user and/or provider |
Over 12 | $100.00 fee to user and/or provider |
(d) The following fee schedule shall apply in all districts other than R Residential:
Number | Action Taken |
1 and 2 | Warning letter to user/provider, no charge |
3 through 6 | $50.00 fee to user and/or provider |
7 through 12 | $100.00 fee to user and/or provider |
Over 12 | $200.00 fee to user and/or provider |
(e) The Chief of Police may waive all or parts of the above schedules for a newly installed alarm system during thirty (30) days immediately following the completion of the installation to a maximum of three (3) false alarms.
(f) Notwithstanding the fine to be assessed as set forth above, no charge shall be made for a false alarm to which there is no response by the Police or Fire Departments, nor when the cause has been proven as an act of God, or as defined in Section 715.02(b).
(g) The Chief of Police may order that the user or provider prove that the cause of the false alarm notification has been remedied.
(h) If the user fails to pay the administrative fee within thirty (30) days thereof, the Chief of Police shall report the delinquency to the Director of Finance, who shall report the same to Council, which may thereupon assess the cost, together with the expense of assessing and collecting the same, upon the property upon which the alarm system is located, and cause the assessment to be certified to the County Auditor for collection.
(i) Any device designed to emit an alarm upon detection of smoke, fire or unauthorized intrusion shall constitute a nuisance if twelve (12) or more false alarms are emitted and reported to the Police or Fire Departments, or both, in any twelve (12) month period. The Law Director may take appropriate civil or criminal action to abate such nuisance.
(j) Audible alarms which emit an audible signal for more than ten consecutive minutes are hereby prohibited and declared to be a public nuisance. In addition to other penalties provided by law, upon the failure of any system user to remove or abate such nuisance, the Building Inspector or any member of the Police Department may cause such nuisance to be removed or abated. Such removal or abatement may include the seizure and/or destruction of property constituting or used in the maintenance of the nuisance, for which the City, its officers and employees shall have no liability. Any person failing to remove or abate a nuisance as stated herein, shall be liable to the City for any and alt costs of such removal or abatement, which costs may be recovered by a proceeding instituted in any Court of competent jurisdiction.
(k) Automatic dialing devices are prohibited.
(Ord. 1998-70. Passed 12-10-98.)