Ordinance 03-070 Establishes Alarm Regulations CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY
SPOKANE COUNTY WASHINGTON
ORDINANCE NO.03-070
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY,WASHINGTON,
ESTABLISHING ALARM REGULATIONS FOR THE
CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY.
WHEREAS, false alarms require fire and police agencies to use limited financial and personnel
resources in an inefficient manner; and
WHEREAS, the City Council desires to establish an alarm ordinance to reduce the number of
false alarms to which fire and police personnel must respond;
NOW THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Spokane Valley, Washington,ordains as follows:
Section 1. Intent. The City of Spokane Valley declares that response to false alarms to be
an unnecessary, inefficient use of the limited manpower and other resources of the City Police
Department. Therefore, the intent of this Ordinance is to promote more effective and efficient law
enforcement services to the public through reduction of the number of responses to false alarms.
Section 2. Definitions. In construing the provisions of this Ordinance, except where
otherwise plainly declared or clearly apparent from the context, words used in this Ordinance shall be
given their common and ordinary meaning and in addition,the following definitions shall apply:
(1) "alarm system" means any assembly of equipment, mechanical or electrical, designed to alert
law enforcement agencies, the public or any person of the commission or attempted commission of a
crime.
(2) "alarm user" means any person, business or others entity, which owns or has control over any
building,structure or facility where an alarm system is maintained.
(3) "authorized service personnel" means those persons who, by reason of their experience,
training or occupation, can demonstrate to the City Police that they are qualified to inspect and repair
alarm systems.
(4)"false alarm" means the intentional or unintentional activation of any alarm system that elicits
a response from the City Police Department when no criminal act has been committed or attempted. The
causes of false alarms include, but are not limited to, the following: equipment malfunction, improper
installation or maintenance of equipment, human error or negligence, or any cause other than the actual
commission or attempted commission of a criminal act.
(5) "intentional" means an act done by intention. A person acts with intent or intentionally when
he or she acts with the object or purpose to accomplish a particular result.
Section 3. Prohibited equipment--Automatic dialing device. Any alarm system designed to
alert any law enforcement agency of an emergency by providing unattended automatic dialing to 911 or
any public telephone number of a law enforcement agency for the purpose of transmitting a
preprogrammed signal, message or code shall be prohibited.
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Section 4. Required equipment —Standby power backup source. All alarm systems shall
have a standby backup power supply which will automatically assume the operation of the alarm system
should any interruption occur in power to the system. The transfer of power from the primary source to
the backup source must occur in a manner that does not activate the alarm.
Section 5. Audible alarms — Time limit. It shall be unlawful to operate an audible alarm
system which does not shut off within a maximum of thirty minutes from the time of activation. Shutoff
may be accomplished either with an automatic cutoff or by manual operation. If the alarm system has an
automatic cutoff with a rearming phase, the rearming phase must be able to distinguish between an open
and closed circuit and if the circuit is broken,the system will not rearm.
Section 6. Emergency response information.
(I)No person or business shall maintain an alarm system unless:
(A) There is a list filed with the City Police Department of the telephone numbers at
which the person or persons authorized to enter the premises where the alarm is located
and turn off the alarm can be reached at all times;or
(B) Such a list is filed with a monitoring service and a twenty-four hour telephone
number for that service is provided to the City Police Department or clearly displayed
outside the premises where the alarm is located.
(2) Upon notification by the City Police Department that a person's presence is required, the
alarm user or their representative shall promptly proceed to the scene of the alarm within a reasonable
period of time and render necessary service. Such service, when necessary, shall include turning off the
alarm and/or opening the alarmed premises so a search can be made.
(3) Circumstances that may require the alarm user's presence include, but are not limited to:
continual malfunction of an alarm system which causes repeated false alarms over a short period of time;
evidence at the alarmed premises indicating a crime was committed or attempted and further investigation
is necessary; or the premises is not or cannot be, properly secured.
Section 7. False alarms prohibited—Penalties.
(1)No alarm user shall cause or allow a false alarm.
(2) The intentional activation of a burglary or robbery alarm system for the purpose of
summoning the City Police Department for other than an actual burglary or robbery or a life-threatening
emergency situation, shall be punishable as a misdemeanor.
(3) False alarms from the same location within a six-month period shall be subject to the fees
schedule set forth in the Spokane Valley Master Fee Schedule, Fire Code Fees. This ordinance provides
new regulatory authority in Spokane Valley. Therefore, upon the adoption of this ordinance, no alarm
user will be considered to have any previous violations subject to increased penalty levels under the
Master Fee Schedule.
(4) Hearing on notices of infraction issued pursuant to Section 8(3) shall be heard by the Spokane
County District Court pursuant to RCW 7.80.010. The procedures for issuance of a notice of infraction,
hearings, assessment and payment of monetary penalties, shall be in accordance with the provisions of
RCW 7.80.
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Section 8. Enforcement—Policies.
(1) The provisions of this Ordinance shall be administered and enforced by the City Police
Department. The City Police Department is authorized to make and enforce such rules and regulations as
are necessary to implement the provisions of this Ordinance. Copies of the rules and regulations
promulgated under this Ordinance shall be available to the public at the City Police Department and/or at
City Hall.
(2) In addition to imposing the penalties set forth in Section 7, the City Police Department may
utilize the following procedures and practices to reduce false alarms:
(a) On the first false alarm within a six-month period, the alarm user may be required to
provide certain information when an alarm is received from an alarm system under his or
her control.This information may include:
(i)The cause of the alarm;
(ii)Any corrective action taken;
(iii) Whether or not the alarm system had been inspected and/or repaired and the
name and address of the person performing the repairs.
(b) On the second false alarm within a six-month period, the alarm user shall submit a
written report as provided in the previous subsection. In addition, the City Police
Department may require inspections of the alarm system by authorized service personnel
at the alarm user's expense; and the City Police Department may prescribe corrective
action to be taken as the result of the inspection.
(c)On the third or subsequent false alarm within a six-month period,the alarm user shall
submit a written report as provided in the previous subsections. The City Police
Department may require inspections of the alarm system by authorized service personnel
at the alarm user's expense; and the City Police Department may prescribe corrective
action to be taken as the result of the inspection. In addition:
(i) The City Police Department may assign a lower response priority or not
respond at all, to alarms received from the alarm system;
(ii) The City Police Department may order that an alarm system be
disconnected; provided, that no alarm system required by law shall be ordered
disconnected. Notice shall be given to the alarm user at least forty-eight hours
prior to the required disconnection if the names) of the alarm user(s) have been
provided to the City Police Department. Failure to furnish the name(s) of the
alarm user(s) shall constitute a waiver of this notice requirement; and
(d) If the policies of ordering alarm systems disconnected and/or no response by the City
Police Department are implemented, provisions shall be made for allowing the alarm
system to be reconnected and response reinstated if the alarm user satisfactorily shows
that the cause(s)of the previous false alarms has(have)been identified and corrected.
(i)Once reconnected,the alarm system shall be on probationary status for a set
period of time not to exceed six months.
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(ii) If the repeated instances of false alarms continue during the probationary
period, the alarm system may again be ordered disconnected and the policy of no
response may be invoked.
Section 9. Misdemeanor. The violation of subsection 7(2) shall constitute a misdemeanor,
punishable by imprisonment in jail for up to ninety days or by a fine of not more than one thousand
dollars or by both such fine and imprisonment.
Section 10. Distribution of funds. All funds collected from fees imposed under this
Ordinance shall be distributed the City General Fund.
Section 11. Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance is held invalid, the remainder of
the Ordinance is not affected.
Section 12. Effective date. This Ordinance shall be in full force and effect five days after
publication of this Ordinance or a summary thereof occurs in the official newspaper of the City as
provided by law.
Passed on this 22nd day of July, 2003.
Mayor,Michael DeVI ing
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City Clerk, Christine Bainbridge I�
Approved As To Form:
lnteri 'City �'�or ey, Stanley► . Schwartz
Date of Publication: 7-a.6 -L3
Effective Date: °7-* 3/-d
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