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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986-1640 - Ordinance - 03/13/1986ORDINANCE NO. 1640 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS AMENDING CHAP- TER 4, SECTION 8 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, CITY OF COLLEGE STA- TION, TEXAS BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLLEGE STA- TION, TEXAS That Chapter 4, Section 8 of the Code of Ordinances, City of Col- lege Station, Texas is hereby amended to read as follows: SECTION 8: ALARM SYSTEMS A. DEFINITIONS (1) Alarm Agent shall mean any individual employed by an alarm business whose duties include altering, install- ing, maintaining, moving, repairing, replacing, sell- ing, servicing, responding to, or monitoring an alarm system. It shall also mean any person employed or otherwise associated with an alarm business who has access to confidential information relating to a custom- er or subscriber of such alarm business which could be used to compromise or defeat an alarm system. (2) Central Station means any premise, usually maintained by an alarm company, equipped to receive and displace sig- nals from any type alarms· (3) Alarm User means any person on whose premises an alarm system is maintained, except for alarm systems on motor vehicles. (4) Subscriber means any person or business which buys or otherwise obtains an alarm system and has a contract with an alarm business to monitor and/or service the alarm system. (5) Home Alarm means any alarm device or system which is connected to a residence. (6) Hold-up Alarm means any type alarm system or device designated to be activated by the Alarm User or Subscriber in the event of a hold-up or robbery. Ordinance No. 1640 headquarters and reproduces a pre-recorded message to report a criminal intrusion or other emergency requiring police response. (8) Chief of Police shall mean the Chief of the College Sta- tion Police Department or his designated representative. (9) City shall mean the City of College Station, Texas. (10) False Alarm shall mean the activation of an alarm system or device through mechanical failure, malfunction, im- proper installation, or the negligence of the owner or lessee of an alarm system or d~vice or of his employees or agents. Such terminology does not include, for ex- ample, alarms caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, earth- quakes or other violent conditions. (11) Person shall mean any individual, corporation or organi- zation. ALARM BUSINESS LICENSE No person shall conduct an alarm business in the City of Col- lege Station unless they are licensed by the State of Texas under the provisions of the Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act. RECORDS Every subscriber of an alarm system or device within the City of College Station shall have an emergency response card on file with the Chief of Police. The card must contain the names and current telephone numbers of at least three indi- viduals authorized to enter upon the premises and turn off any such alarm. The person must acknowledge in writing that the employees of the Police Department of the City of College Station are authorized to enter any premises where an alarm has been activated, and that they may use reasonable means necessary to gain entry to determine if the alarm is valid or false. The City of College Station shall maintain a record of all responses to activated alarms. Such records shall include the time, date, and location of the alarm and information indicating if activation of the alarm was valid or false. Upon notification by the City of College Station Police De- partment, the designated alarm agent, if any, or the person so listed on the emergency response card, shall come to the scene of an alarm activation within thirty (30) minutes of being notified of the alarm activation. -2- Ordinance No. 1640 D. OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS The sensory mechanisms used in connection with the alarms and/or automatic dial devices shall be adjusted to suppress for all signals so the alarms will not be activated by im- pulses due to transient pressure surges, electrical power surges or failures, short flashes of light, normal room tem- perature changes, wind noises, rattling or vibrating doors or windows, vehicular noises, or other causes unrelated to genu- ine signals. E. ALARM SYSTEM STANDARDS (1) Power Supply Any alarm system which necessitates response by a law enforcement agency or is a public alarm, shall be pro- vided with standby power to automatically maintain the system in a normal condition for a period of four hours in the event of the interruption of the primary power source. This does not apply where the central monitor- ing equipment produces a distinctive signal indicating power failure at the protected premises and a police response is not required. (2) The City shall be entitled to inspect any installation for standby power supply function during regular busi- ness hours. F. MAINTENANCE (1) All alarm systems shall be subject to repair or correc- tion no later than the end of the business day following the day on which the user or alarm agent receives noti- fication of the need for such service. (2) Each installation shall be thoroughly inspected once each year. A copy of the inspection shall be sent to the Chief of Police by the Alarm Agent on a yearly basis. The Police Chief or his delegate may require more fre- quent inspection. AUDIBLE OR LOCAL ALARM SYSTEM CUTOFF Every audible local alarm shall be equipped with an automatic fifteen (15) minute cutoff and reset device, or shall be cap- able of being silenced manually by the owner or his repre- sentative within fifteen (15) minutes of the activation. -3- Ordinance No. 1640 H. MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS When a false alarm has occurred, the owner or his designated representative on the emergency response card shall within thirty (30) days make a written report to the Chief of Police stating the reasons for such false alarm and the corrective action taken to prevent a re-occurrence. First response - A response to premises at which no other false alarm has occurred within any calendar month shall be referred to as a "first response." No penalty or administra- tive sanction shall be imposed for a first response. Second and subsequent response - civil penalty. When two or more false alarms have occurred at any premises in any calen- dar month, owner shall have committed an infraction of this ordinance punishable by a civil penalty. The penalty for the second false alarm in any calendar month shall be calculated by the Director of Finance, such cost shall include personnel time for all officers involved in the response and vehicle cost, one-half hour for each vehicle involved, and to each succeeding false alarm in any calendar month shall be added an additional Twenty-five Dollars ($25.00). Any false alarms resulting from a failure to take the necessary corrective action to prevent any such re-occurrence and/or any nonpay- ment of any false alarm penalty may result in the College Station Chief of Police providing a written notice ordering a disconnection of such alarm until such corrective action or payment of penalty is made provided that no disconnection shall be ordered on any premises required by law to have an alarm system in operation. I. NOTICE OF VIOLATION (1) Responsibility for Issuance. The Chief of Police or his designate shall be responsible for issuance of written notices of infractions to the owner following the second and each succeeding false alarm in any calendar month. The Chief of Police shall notify the City Finance De- partment of the amount of the penalties to be collected. (2) Waiver of Imposition. In the event that the Chief of Police determines that the false alarm occurred as a di- rect result of an interruption of electrical power, a telephone system malfunction, an alarm equipment mal- function, or other causes clearly beyond the control of the owner, the Chief of Police may waive imposition of the applicable false alarm penalty or administrative sanction. -4- Ordinance No. 1640 (3) Eparin~ from Administrative Decision Finality. Any per- son subject to the imposition of a penalty, order of disconnection, or other administrative sanction under the terms of this ordinance shall have a right to appeal the decision of the Chief of Police to the City Mana- ger. Requests for a hearing must be made in writing and filed with the office of the City Manaqer within fifteen (~5) days of the date of the notice of-the administra- tive decision. Upon receipt of such written request, the City Manager shall schedule a hearing date and in- form the owner of the date, time, and place of the past false alarms, corrective action taken, and any inspec- tion reports on the causes of the false alarms. If the City Manager determines that the false alarms were not caused by the owner, his employees, representatives or agents, and that reasonable steps have been taken to correct the problem, the penalty disconnection order or administrative sanction may be suspended in whole or in part. The City Manager shall keep a written report of the hearing, including a statement of the reasons for the action taken. J. DIAL ALARM RECEIVING EQUIPMENT After the enactment of this section, no automatic protection devices known as dial alarms or dialers, will be installed and keyed to any police emergency trunk line, used by the police to receive emergency requests or used to provide the public with information. Within sixty (60) days after the effective date of this section, all automatic protection devices known as dialers or dial alarms that were connected to a police emergency number or to a line used by the police to give the general public information, shall be disconnected from such number or line. The owner or lessee of any such de- vice so connected shall be responsible for the disconnection of said device, and obtaining from the City of College Sta- tion Police Department the necessary instructions. K. TESTING OF EQUIPMENT No person shall conduct any test or demonstration of a police alarm device or system in the City of College Station without first obtaining permission from the Chief of Police. Permis- sion to conduct such test of a police alarm device or system shall not be necessary when the alarm device is connected to an intermediary receiver and not relayed to police headquar- ters, and precaution has been taken to insure that such test will not cause police response or alarm to the general public. Ordinance No. 1640 L. PENALTIES (1) Violation of any subsection of this ordinance shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00). (2) The knowing failure of an alarm agent to inspect or re- pair an alarm where required herein is an offense here- under. Each day during which such failure continues shall constitute a separate offense. (3) The intentional installation or maintenance of an alarm not in accordance with the requirements of this ordi- nance is an offense hereunder. (4) It is an offense to knowingly or recklessly fail to sup- ply information as required by Section 8-C. It is an offense to knowingly or recklessly fail to attend upon the scene of an alarm activation within the time period set forth herein after actual notice has been given to the person designated to enter and control any premises. II. Should any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase or word of this ordinance be declared unconstitutional or invalid for any purpose, the remainder of this ordinance shall not be affected thereby. III. All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict here- with are repealed to the extent of the conflict only. IV. This ordinance shall become effective from and after its passage and publication in accordance with the City Charter of the City of College Station. PASSED, ADOPTED, and APPROVED this ATTEST: CITY SECRETARY l__3~y of ~rch , 1986. -6-