ARTICLE IV: BUSIUNESS LICENSES AND REGULATIONS
DIVISION A: ALARM SYSTEMS
§ 14.138 PURPOSE AND FINDINGS.
The purpose of this Division A is to encourage alarm users and alarm companies to maintain the operational effectiveness and reliability of alarm systems and to foster the proper use of these systems in order to reduce or eliminate unnecessary responses by the City Police Department to false alarms. Nothing herein stated should be construed as imposing or implying any duty upon the City Police Department to respond to alarm dispatch requests, as limiting the discretion of the Police Chief in establishing response policies or as waiving otherwise applicable governmental immunities. The City Council makes the following findings regarding the need to regulate alarm system operating within the city:
(a) The number of false alarms the City Police Department responds to has reached a level which places an intolerable burden upon the time and resources of the city; and
(b) False alarm responses, by unduly diverting law enforcement resources from criminal law prevention and enforcement, threaten the safety of the police officers and the public.
(1958 Code, § 137.01) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.139 DEFINITIONS.
The following words and terms, when used in this Division A, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
ALARM ADMINISTRATOR. A person designated by the City Manager to administer, control and review the city’s false alarm reduction efforts.
ALARM COMPANY. The business of any individual, partnership, corporation or other entity involving the selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, moving, monitoring or installing any alarm system at an alarm site located within the city or causing to be sold, leased, maintained, serviced, repaired, altered, replaced, moved or installed any alarm system in or on any building, structure facility or other alarm site located within the city. Specifically included in this definition and the provisions of this Division A are individuals, partnerships, corporations or other entities performing alarm system monitoring services.
ALARM DISPATCH REQUEST. Notification to a law enforcement agency that an alarm, either manual or automatic, has been activated at a particular alarm site.
ALARM SITE. A single, fixed premises, building, structure, facility or location served by an alarm system. Each tenant’s space within a multi-tenant building or complex, if served by a separate alarm system, shall be considered a separate ALARM SITE.
ALARM SYSTEM. An assembly of equipment devices, including, but not limited to, systems interconnected with a radio frequency method such as cellular or private radio signal, arranged to emit or transmit a remote or local audible, visual or electronic signal indicating an alarm condition to which the police are expected to respond, including, but not limited to, burglary , hold-up , panic and fire alarm systems. ALARM SYSTEMS to monitor temperature, carbon monoxide, humidity, medical emergencies or any other condition not related to the detection of a fire, a criminal intrusion into an alarm site or an attempted robbery at an alarm site are specifically excluded from the provisions of this Division A . ALARM SYSTEMS installed on a vehicle or person are also excluded unless the alarm is permanently affixed to a specific location.
ALARM USER. The person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind which uses or is in control of an alarm system at an alarm site, regardless of whether it owns or leases the system.
ALARM VERIFICATION PROCESS. An independent method by which an alarm company attempts to verify with the alarm user or responsible party that a signal from an alarm system requires an immediate dispatch of police personnel.
AUTOMATIC VOICE DIALER. An electrical, electronic, mechanical or other device capable of being programmed to automatically send a pre-recorded message, when activated, over a telephone line, radio or other communication system to a law enforcement agency.
BURGLARY ALARM. Any system, device or mechanism for the detection and reporting of criminal intrusion, or attempted intrusion upon an alarm site to a remote receiving station for the purpose of dispatching law enforcement personnel.
FALSE ALARM. An alarm signal eliciting notification to and a response by police where the responding police officer, having completed a timely investigation of the alarm site, is unable to find any evidence of a crime, or attempted crime.
HOLD-UP ALARM. A silent alarm signal generated by the manual activation of a device intended to signal a robbery in progress to law enforcement personnel.
LOCAL ALARM SYSTEM. Any alarm system that enunciates an alarm only by an interior and/or exterior audible sounding device and is not monitored by an alarm company.
PANIC ALARM. An audible or silent alarm system signal generated by the manual activation of a device intended to signal a life-threatening or emergency situation requiring the dispatch of law enforcement personnel, including, but not limited to: duress and ambush alarms.
(1958 Code, § 137.02) (Ord. 66-64, passed 11-28-1966; Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; Ord. 74-105, passed 11-18-1974; Ord. 82-38, passed 9-27-1982; re-codified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 95-21, passed 11-20-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.140 DUTIES OF ALARM USERS.
Alarm users whose alarm site is located within the city shall:
(a) Maintain the premises and alarm system in a manner that will minimize or eliminate false alarms;
(b) Maintain a current key-holder list with their alarm company;
(c) Notify the alarm company of a false alarm activation as soon as the user is aware of the false alarm; and
(d) Not manually activate an alarm except when in need of an immediate dispatch of law enforcement personnel to an emergency situation.
(1958 Code, § 137.03) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; deleted by Ord. 87-77, passed 10-16-1987; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; deleted by Ord. 95-21, passed 11-20-1995; added by Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.141 LICENSE RESTRICTIONS.
(a) Local exterior sounding burglary alarms prohibited. The installation of local exterior burglary system-sounding devices shall not be permitted.
(b) Automatic dialing devices. The use of automatic dialing devices is permitted, except that such devices shall not be set or programmed to dial “911”.
(c) Required access to site. The Police Department will only respond to a burglary alarm site once within a 24-hour period unless the alarm company is able to locate a key-holder who will provide police officers access to the site.
(1958 Code, § 137.04) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 95-21, passed 11-20-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.142 RESERVED.
§ 14.143 FALSE ALARMS.
(a) Penalties - alarm user. A penalty shall be paid by the alarm user to the city for each false alarm in excess of one per calendar year. The penalty shall be as set forth in City Code Appendix A and shall increase by the sum as set forth in City Code Appendix A for each succeeding false alarm thereafter within the calendar year. Payment of these penalties may be enforced by civil action.
(b) Penalties - alarm company. Where the responding police officer determines that a false alarm was caused by the on-site actions of an employee of the alarm company , a penalty as set forth in City Code Appendix A shall be assessed against the alarm company with no corresponding fine being assessed against the alarm user .
(c) Exceptions. No penalty shall be due, and no alarm shall be credited as a false alarm if it is shown that the false alarm was the result of damage to utility lines, tornadoes, lightning, earthquakes or other such severe weather conditions.
(1958 Code, § 137.06) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 95-21, passed 11-20-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2021-39, passed 11-29-2021; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.144 DUTIES OF ALARM COMPANY.
Alarm companies shall:
(a) Not install a device that activates a hold-up alarm by the depression of a single-action non-recessed button at alarm sites within the city;
(b) Not install any panic or hold-up alarm system in residential sites that activates a silent alarm signal by alteration of the last digit of the normal arm/disarm code at alarm sites within the city;
(c) Not install any silent burglary alarm system at alarm sites within the city;
(d) Not install any burglary control panel failing to meet Security Industry Association standards with false alarm prevention feature programmed to the factory default;
(e) Complete an alarm verification process for all residential alarm signals prior to requesting a response by the Police Department;
(f) Complete an alarm verification process for all commercial burglary alarm signals prior to requesting a response by the Police Department;
(g) Maintain a current record, that includes: the names of alarm users serviced by the company; the addresses of the protected properties; the type of alarm system, the original installation date and subsequent modifications, if any for each protected property; a record of the date and time of alarm dispatch requests to each protected property; and provide this record to the Alarm Administrator upon request.
(h) Provide each of its alarm system users with: operating instructions for their alarm system , including an explanation of the company’s alarm verification process ; a telephone number to call for assistance in operating the system; and a summary of the provisions of this Division A relating to penalties for false alarms and the possibility of no police response to alarm systems experiencing excessive false alarms ;
(i) Work cooperatively with the alarm system user and the Alarm Administrator to determine the cause of any false alarm and to prevent recurrences; and
(j) Establish a training period during the first seven days following the installation of any burglary alarm system during which the alarm user will be trained on the proper use of the system and during which no request for an immediate dispatch of police personnel will be made by the alarm company without independent factual support.
Violation of any of these duties will be subject to a civil penalty for each separate violation as set forth in City Code Appendix A.
(1958 Code, § 137.07) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§ 14.145 SUSPENSION OF POLICE RESPONSE.
(a) Notice of suspension of police response. Upon an excessive number of false burglary alarms as determined by the Chief of Police or designee, or where the alarm user is more than 120 days overdue in their payment of alarm fines, the city’s Alarm Administrator shall serve the alarm user’s designated contact person with written notification that effective 14 days from the date of the notice, the City Police Department will not be responding to burglary alarm dispatch requests from that site for the remainder of the calendar year unless there is an in-person call for assistance from someone at or near the premises or other independent information that verifies the need for an immediate police response.
(b) Written appeal of suspension notice.
- Within seven days from the date of the suspension notice the alarm user may file with the city’s Alarm Administrator a written appeal of the proposed suspension of police response explaining the steps taken to correct the problem, any facts pertaining to the overdue payment of fines, the facts and circumstances of the false alarms from this alarm site and any other information relevant to the Alarm Administrator’s proposed suspension of police response.
- Within five days of the Alarm Administrator’s receipt of the written appeal and after reviewing the city’s files for the alarm site, alarm user and alarm company and all of the submissions of the alarm user , the Alarm Administrator shall issue a decision to confirm, suspend or rescind the suspension notice and serve a written copy thereof on the alarm user’s contact person by mail.
(c) Suspension of police response. Where an alarm user has failed to properly file a timely appeal of a notice to suspend or where the Alarm Administrator has issued a decision confirming a notice to suspend, the Police Department in determining whether to make an immediate police dispatch in response to notification of a signal from that alarm user’s alarm system , may disregard that burglary alarm dispatch request when the alarm signal is the only basis for making the dispatch request. Where there is, in addition to the alarm dispatch request, an in-person call, verification from a person at or near the premises or other independent evidence shows a need for police dispatch to the alarm site, police may consider the suspension of police response as an additional factor in the decision to order an immediate response.
(1958 Code, § 137.08) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 95-21, passed 11-20-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000; Ord. 2024-18, passed 7-22-2024)
§§ 14.145.01—14.145.07 RESERVED.
§ 14.146 SEVERABILITY.
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this Division A is for any reason held to be invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Division A. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted the ordinance in each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses, or phrases be declared invalid.
(1958 Code, § 132.01) (Ord. 70-6, passed 2-3-1970; Ord. 74-100, passed 11-18-1974; repealed by Ord. 90-2, passed 1-22-1990; recodified by Ord. 95-13, passed 8-7-1995; Ord. 2000-33, passed 12-18-2000