Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 6914 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 6914 q,Q fORT�o To the Mayor and Members of the City Council February 14 1984 •rte"-may UPDATE ON FADE BUW3L,AR/ROBBERY ALARM exA Subject: e,3 ORDINANCE Since M&C G-5807 was last brought before the City Council for discussion, staff as directed by the City Council, has met a number of times with representatives of the Alarm Association and their attorney to obtain additional information regarding the proposed false burglar/robbery alarm ordinance. As a result of information provided by the Alarm Association and their attorney, staff has reevaluated the proposed ordinance and has made several changes. The most important changes are listed below. ° Requires commercial alarm users/owners to get a permit for each alarm system, rather than for each alarm site as previously proposed. This change will allow for the ordinance to be more responsive to the concerns of users/oweers of multiple alarm systems. ° Changed the permit duration fran three years to two years. Staff feels that a two-year renewal is necessary in order to maintain accurate data files. ° Prohibited automatic alarm notifications (taped messages) from directly entering the ac munications center of the Police Department. As a result of new technology, staff felt that the change was needed to prevent the potential paralysis of the cormunications center by the new automatic phone dialing systems. ° Changed the wording ("violent" to "severe") and added other language ("or other weather conditions that causes physical damage to the alarm location") regarding weather conditions. Staff believes that these changes will allow the ordinance to reflect greater sensitivity in excluding false alarm notifications caused by weather conditions. Even though additional meetings with the Alarm Association yielded new information and subsequent changes in the proposed ordinance, we still differ on several items. The major points of disagreement are discussed below. The alarm association has expressed an interest in an alarm permit which is renewed annually. The annual permit would best work with their multi-tiered service fee proposal. The multi-tiered approach is as follows: L ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No, - p.2 ' �,PTf qF `0i OR), To the Mayor and Members of the City Council February 14, 1984 z grexAy� Subject: UPDATE ON FALSE BURGLAR/ROBBERY ALARM ORDINANCE A) Four "free" false alarm notifications would be allowed. B) Upon the fifth false alarm notification, a report would be required frcrn the permit holder to (1) describe the actions taken to eliminate the cause of the false alarm notifications and, (2) explain why the alleged false alarm notifications should not be considered false alarms. C) Should the permit holder not submit a report or if actions described in the report are inadequate, the permit is subject to revocation unless appealed. If the actions described are determined to "substantially reduce the likelihood" of false alarm notifications, the permit holder' s alarm permit will not be revoked at that time. If a sixth false alarm notification occurs within the permit year, the permit may be revoked. D) A permit holder whose permit has been revoked may apply for a probationary permit in order to operate his or her alarm system(s). The structure for probationary permits is as follows: First Probationary Permit $ 60.00 Second Probationary Permit 120.00 Third Probationary Permit 180.00 Fourth Probationary Permit 240.00 Fifth Probationary Permit 300.00 Sixth Probationary Permit 500.00 Seventh and all subsequent Probationary Permits (each) 1000.00 Each probationary permit would entitle the permit holder to five additional "free" false alarm notifications per system, before the revocation process is repeated. Based on staff research, only one city currently utilizes a multi-tiered approach. That city is considerably smaller and has considerably fewer false alarms. It would not appear to be cost-effective for the City of Fort Worth to implement the same type of system. Another area of disagrreeoent. concerned "common c •v3e" alarms. The Alarm Association proposed that the ordinance included a provision to count all false alarm L ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER - FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 6914 - p.3 r a PICAFebruar 14 1984 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Y Subject: UPDATE ON FALSE BURGLAR/ROBBERY ALARM ORDINANCE notifications generated by a ccnmon technical difficulty or malfunction to be counted as one false alarm notification if the false alarm notification occurs over a 72-hour period, provided that (1) action was taken to rectify the cause, (2) such corrective action was documented to the Chief, and (3) a thirty (30) day period expired without the alarm system generating any additional alarms from the documented cause. Staff believes that since these situations are rare, adding a provision for exclusions in the body of the ordinance is unnecessary. We intend to address each occurrence on a case-by-case basis, and will make adjustments if necessary. Staff believes that the proposed ordinance is fair to all concerned and will achieve the desired objective with a minimum of cost. We intend to monitor the false alarm notification situation closely in the next six to twelve months after the effective date and will advise the City Council of any problems. Attached for your information is an article from the January 1984 issue of Texas Town & City, regarding false burglar alarm ordinances. Should additional information be desired, it will be furnished upon request. Robert L. Herchert City Manager RLH:kc Attachment L ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER - FORT WORTH, TEXAS