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Alarm Ordinance
An ordinance regulating the installation
and use of alarm systems,
providing for the imposition of fees for false alarms, establishing
a penalty for
violation thereof and repealing any and all ordinances and
/ or resolutions in conflict
therewith.
The Township Board of the Charter Township of Chesterfield,
Macomb County,
Michigan ordains:
Section 1. Short Title
This Ordinance shall be known and
cited as the “Chesterfield Township Alarm Ordinance”.
Section 2. Enabling
Authority
This Ordinance is adopted pursuant
to and in accordance with 1945 PA 246 and 1947 PA 359.
Section 3. Definitions
- ) The term “Alarm Business” means any business
in which the owners or employees engage in the activity
of altering, installing, leasing, maintaining, repairing,
replacing, selling or servicing alarm systems.
- ) The term “Alarm System” means an assembly
of equipment and devices or a single device such as a
solid-state unit, which uses electrical energy to signal
the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention and
to which Police are expected to respond. In this Ordinance,
the term “Alarm System” shall include but
not be limited to the terms “Automatic Holdup Alarm
Systems”, “Burglar Alarm Systems”, “Holdup
Alarm Systems” and “Manual Holdup Alarm Systems”
as those terms are hereinafter defined. Fire alarm systems
and alarm systems, which monitor temperature, humidity
or any other condition not directly related to the detection
of an unauthorized intrusion into premises or an attempted
robbery at premises, are specifically excluded from the
provisions of this Ordinance. Also excluded from this
definition and from the coverage of this Ordinance are
alarm systems used to alert or signal persons within the
premises in which the alarm system is located, of an attempt
unauthorized intrusion or holdup attempt. If a system
deploys an audible signal emitting sounds or a flashing
light or beacon designed to signal persons outside the
premises, the system shall be within the definition of
alarm system and shall be subject to this Ordinance.
- ) The term “Annunciator” means the instrumentation
on an alarm console at the receiving terminal of a signal
line, which through both visual and audible signals show
that an alarm device at a particular location has been
activated or indicates line trouble.
- ) The term “Answering Service” refers to
a telephone answering service providing among it’s
services, the service of receiving on a continuous basis
through trained employees, emergency signals from alarm
systems, and thereafter immediately relaying the message
by live voice to the communication center of the Police
Department.
- ) The term “Automatic Dialing Device” refers
to an alarm system which automatically sends over regular
telephone lines, by direct connection or otherwise, a
prerecorded voice message or coded signal indicating the
existence of the emergency situation that the alarm system
is designed to detect.
- ) The term “Automatic Holdup Alarm System”
means an alarm system in which the signal transmission
is initiated by the action of the robber.
- ) The term “Burglar Alarm System” refers
to an alarm system signaling an entry or attempted entry
into the area protected by the system.
- ) The term “False Alarm” means the activation
of an alarm system through mechanical failure, malfunction,
improper installation without an unlawful entry or through
the negligence of the owner or lessee of an alarm system
or of his employees or agents or other cause.
- ) The term “Holdup Alarm System”, refers
to an alarm system signaling a robbery or attempted robbery.
- ) The term “Manual Holdup Alarm System”
refers to an alarm system in which the signal transmission
is initiated by the direct action of the person attacked
or by an observer of the attack.
- ) The term “Police Chief” means the Chief
of the Police Department of the Township or his designated
representative.
- ) The tern “Subscriber” means a person who
buys or leases, or otherwise obtains an alarm signaling
system and contracts with or hires an alarm business to
monitor or service the alarm device.
Section 4. Alarm System
Requirements
No person shall interconnect any automatic
dialing device to a Police Department primary trunkline and
no person shall permit such devices to remain interconnected
from any property owned or controlled by that person. Such
devices may be interconnected to a modified central station
or an answering service. Relaying messages so received to
the Police Department shall only be done person to person
on the telephone line designated by the Police Chief. The
Police Chief may approve a direct line installation between
a modified central station or an answering service to the
Police Department, with full costs to be borne by the immediate
service.
- ) The alarm user will provide the Police Department
with the name, telephone number and address of the premises
where the alarm is located and the names and telephone
numbers of at least two other persons who have agreed
in writing to cooperate in this program, who can be reached
at any time, day or night, and who are authorized to respond
to an emergency signal transmitted by the automatic alarm
device, and who can open the premises where the device
is installed. If any such person refuses to cooperate
with the Police Department, such refusal shall be a violation
of this Ordinance. If any such person withdraws his agreement
to cooperate, the alarm user will at once furnish another
person who has consented and meets the qualifications
set out in this section.
- ) No person shall use, install or direct to be installed
any audible alarm system which emits a sound and / or
visual signal for a period longer than 15 minutes from
the time of the initial signaling of the device.
- ) Separate systems are required whenever a single building
contains more than one unit of occupancy and each unit
has a separate entrance. If such occupant elects to install
an alarm system, said person shall be required to have
a separate alarm system for each business located in such
building. Whenever a multiple housing residential structure
shall have separate entrances for each occupancy unit,
and such occupant elects to have an alarm system, each
separate entrance to the occupancy unit shall contain
separate alarm systems.
Section 5. Testing
- ) No alarm system designed to transmit emergency messages
directly to the Police Department shall be tested or demonstrated
without first notifying the Police Department dispatcher.
- ) No alarm system relayed through intermediate services
to the Police Department will be tested to determine response
without first notifying the Police dispatcher
Section 6. Notification
When an alarm business service to it’s
subscribers is disrupted for any reason by the alarm business,
or the alarm business becomes aware of such disruption, it
shall promptly notify it’s subscribers by telephone
that protection is no longer being provided. If, however,
the alarm business has written instructions from it’s
subscriber not to make such notification by telephone during
certain hours, the alarm business may comply with such instructions.
Section 7. Fee For Answering
False Alarms
There is hereby imposed a fee for Police
response to false alarms. For the first two there shall be
no fee but a warning in writing shall be given. Such fees
shall be $25.00 for the third response in any calendar year,
$50.00 for the fourth response in any calendar year and $100.00
for all further responses in that calendar year.
This fee is imposed whether the Police Department received
the alarm by direct connection or through any intermediary
such as an answering service modified central station. This
section imposes no fee when the choice is made to notify the
Police Department directly by person of any situation. The
fee imposed by this section is imposed solely when the choice
is made to employ an alarm system. If the Police Chief is
notified of the date of installation of the new alarm system,
the fee imposed by this section is waived for a 90-day period
beginning with the date of installation.
The Police Department shall mail a “False Alarm Notice”
to the alarm user following each false alarm occurrence indicating
therein the appropriate warning or fee as prescribed by this
Ordinance.
Section 8. Termination
of Direct Connection
The Police Chief is authorized to require
that the owner or lessee of any alarm system directly connected
to the Department shall disconnect such device until it is
working in such a manner as will not produce a high frequency
of false alarms. The Police Chief shall require disconnection
if six or more false alarms are received in any twelve-month
period. The Police Chief may, after giving notice to the subscriber,
order disconnection of the system for non-cooperation of the
subscriber, or for violations of this Ordinance. Any use of
an alarm by an alarm user after receiving notice from the
Chief of Police that the alarm is defective and before the
alarm is repaired is prohibited.
Section 9. Evidence
of False Alarms: Exceptions
In determining whether an alarm is a
false alarm, all circumstances shall be considered. Setting
off an alarm may cause a person who was attempting to break
in to flee. In investigating whether an alarm is false, a
careful check will be made for signs of attempts to break
in, such as scratches around windows. Alarm conditions caused
by the following extenuating circumstances shall not constitute
a false alarm and no false alarm fee shall be charged by the
Township:
- ) Alarm system malfunctions, if corrective measures
have been instituted within a 72-hour period with notification
to the Township Police Department provided that the alarm
user presents documentation of repair service having been
performed by the alarm company to remedy the malfunction.
- ) Alarm conditions being activated by persons working
on the alarm system with prior notification to the Township
Police Department.
- ) Alarms which can be substantiated as being activated
by disruption or disturbance of telephone company facilities
or motor vehicle / utility pole accidents or by storm
conditions.
Section 10. Penalty
Any person, firm or corporation violating
any provision of this Ordinance shall be fined not more than
$500.00 for each offense, and a separate offense shall be
deemed committed on each day during or on which a violation
occurs or continues.
Section 11. Sever Ability
If any section, paragraph, clause or
provision of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid
or unconstitutional, the invalidity or unconstitutionality
of such section, paragraph, clause or provision shall not
affect any of the remaining provisions of this Ordinance.
Section 12. Repeal
of Conflicting Provisions
All resolutions, ordinance or
parts thereof in conflict with the provisions of this Ordinance
are to the extent of such conflict hereby repealed.
Section 13. Publication
This Ordinance shall be published
in full in The Bay Voice, a newspaper of general circulation
in the Charter Township of Chesterfield, within thirty (30)
days after it’s adoption.
Section 14. Effective
Date
This Ordinance shall take effect thirty
(30) days from and after the date of publication of a true
copy thereof in a newspaper circulating within the Charter
Township Of Chesterfield, as heretofore provided by Section
4.
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