Title
False Alarms - For the purpose of clarifying the procedure and penalty for excessive false alarms.
Body
CITY COUNCIL OF THE
City of Annapolis
Ordinance 39-20
Introduced by: Mayor Buckley
Co-sponsored by: Alderman Gay and Alderwoman Tierney
Referred to
Housing and Human Welfare Committee
AN ORDINANCE concerning
False Alarms
FOR the purpose of clarifying the procedure and penalty for excessive false alarms.
BY repealing and re-enacting with amendments the following portions of the Code of the City of Annapolis, 2020 Edition
10.06.010
10.06.020
BY repealing the following portion of the Code of the City of Annapolis, 2020 Edition
10.06.030
SECTION I: BE IT ESTABLISHED AND ORDAINED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL that the Code of the City of Annapolis shall be amended to read as follows:
Title 10 - HEALTH AND SAFETY
Chapter 10.06 - FALSE ALARMS.
Section 10.06.010 - Definitions.
A. False alarm. Any communication generated by or as a result of an alarm system or telecommunication that results in a response and investigation by the City's Fire/EMS or Police Departments which reveals no evidence or indication of a health or safety risk or other actual hazard. False alarms shall not include signals found to be activated by unusually severe weather conditions or other causes that are identified by the Fire/EMS or Police Departments to be beyond the control of the user.
B. User. An owner or lessee of an any alarm system; an owner or lessee of any dwelling unit, place of business, or other premises that has been equipped with an alarm system; an individual who initiates a telecommunication.
Section 10.06.020 - Limit on number of false alarms-Fines for excessive false alarms.
MORE THAN TWO FALSE ALARMS PER PREMISES WITHIN A 365-DAY PERIOD IS DEEMED EXCESSIVE, AND THE USER IS GUILTY OF A MUNICIPAL INFRACTION FOR THE THIRD AND EACH ADDITIONAL FALSE ALARM IN THE SAME PERIOD AND SUBJECT TO A FINE AS ESTABLISHED BY RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL.
If two false alarms occur within a 365-day period, then for all subsequent false alarms that occur thereafter in the same period the user will be assessed a civil fine as established by resolution of the City Council.
Section 10.06.030 - Appeals.
Any user aggrieved by the assessment of a fine may appeal to a board established by the Fire/EMS and Police Departments within fifteen days of the notice of a fine's assessment. The board shall conduct an administrative hearing thereon either in person or by mail, and, in the event that it determines that the false alarm was activated or initiated by causes beyond the control of the user or other extenuating circumstances, the board may abrogate the fine.
SECTION II: AND BE IT FURTHER ESTABLISHED AND ORDAINED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL that this ordinance shall take effect from the date of its passage.
Explanation:
UPPERCASE indicates matter added to existing law.
Strikethrough indicates matter stricken from existing law.
Underlining indicates amendments.