§ 32-33. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Activation means making the alarm system operational for purposes other than testing, that may result in a city police department or other law enforcement agency response to a site.

Alarm administrator means that person designated by the chief of police to administer, control and review alarm applications, permits, alarm requests, and in general the administration of this article.

Alarm agent means any person, who, for compensation or anything of value, acts to install, maintain, alter, move, repair, replace or service alarm systems in the city; any person located within the city who monitors alarm systems in the city and any person who sells, at retail, alarm systems for use within the city. The agent shall meet all requirements to be a state licensed alarm installer in Louisiana, including but not limited to R.S. 40:1662.1 et seq., which is the alarm industry licensing act.

Alarm answering service means a telephone answering service providing among its services the receiving, through trained employees, of the emergency signals from alarm systems, and the relaying of the message by live voice to the communication center of the police department.

Alarm business means any business, firm, company, partnership, corporation or individual who or which services, installs, sells at retail and/or monitors alarm systems. It shall not include a business that only manufactures alarm systems or only sells alarm systems to retail outlets, unless the business also services, installs, sells at retail and/or monitors alarm systems.

Alarm dispatch request means the notification to the police department by the alarm business that an alarm has been activated at a particular alarm site.

Alarm review board means a board established by this article and shall consist of five members as follows: the chief of police or his designee; one member appointed by the city-parish council, as a whole; one member appointed by the city-parish president; and two additional members appointed by the city-parish council from a list of, at least, four candidates to be submitted to the city-parish consolidated council by the Louisiana Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, Region III.

Alarm site means a single premises or location served by an alarm system or systems. Each location served by a separate alarm system in a multitenant building or complex shall be considered an alarm site.

Alarm system means an assembly of equipment or devices designed, arranged or used for the detection of a hazardous condition or an unauthorized entry or attempted entry into a building, structure or facility or for alerting persons of a hazardous condition or the commission of an unlawful act within a building, structure or facility, and which emits a sound, or transmits a signal or message when activated to which annunciation of a law enforcement agency or other service agency is summoned to respond. For purposes of this article, an alarm system shall not include:

(1)

An alarm installed on a motor vehicle.

(2)

An alarm designed so that no notification is given to the police department until after the occupants or agents of the owner or lessee have checked the alarm site and determined that there is physical evidence at the site showing that the alarm was a result of criminal activity of the kind for which the alarm system was designed to give notice, if a person who is able to grant access to the alarm site remains at such site until police arrive whenever the police are notified after an alarm has been activated and such person renders access and such other assistance as he is able to give and such as is needed by law enforcement to properly investigate the situation.

(3)

An alarm installed upon premises occupied by the United States Government, by the state, by the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government or any subdivision thereof.

(4)

Any device or system designed solely to detect or give notice of fire or smoke.

Alarm system monitoring company means any individual, partnership, corporation, or other entity that engages in the business of monitoring property, burglary, robbery or panic alarms and of reporting any activation of such alarms to the city police department. Such company must have a monitoring station which is the use of a system or a group of systems in which the operation of circuits and devices at a protected property are signaled to, recorded in and supervised from a central monitoring station having trained operators who, upon receipt of a signal, take such action as may be required by the nature of the signal received.

Alarm user means any person, firm, company, partnership or other entity possessing a functional alarm system to which police officers may be required to respond.

Apartment complex means a building or multiple buildings made up of individual dwelling units with a dwelling unit being a room fitted especially with housekeeping facilities.

Audible alarm system means an alarm system that emits an audible sound or message which can be heard off premises. Such an audible local area alarm may or may not be monitored by an alarm system monitoring company, and such audible sound is intended to alert neighbors or other residents of the local area to summon police.

Automatic telephone dialing equipment means an alarm system which automatically sends over regular telephone lines, by direct connection or otherwise, a prerecorded police message, coded signal, voice dialer and/taped dialer to report a police emergency condition which the alarm system is designed to detect.

Conversion means the transaction or process by which one alarm business begins the monitoring of an alarm system previously monitored by another alarm business.

Dispatch means to direct police units to a location where there has been a report made, by whatever means, that police assistance or investigation is needed.

False alarm means the activation of an alarm system under circumstances where no police emergency exists at the alarm site and when activation results in a response by a law enforcement agency.

False alarm dispatch means an alarm dispatch request to the police department, when the responding officer finds no evidence of a criminal offense or attempted criminal offense after having completed a timely investigation of the alarm site. Malicious acts of persons not under the control of the alarm user may be considered in determining if an alarm activation was false and whether an occurrence, fine, warning and/or other action will be taken against the alarm user as provided for in this article. An alarm dispatch request which is canceled by the alarm business or the alarm user prior to the time the responding officer reaches the alarm site shall not be considered a false alarm dispatch.

Holdup alarm means any system, device, or mechanism activated by human action as a result of or in response to a robbery or an attempted robbery at the alarm site.

Interconnect means to connect an alarm system to a voice grade telephone line, either directly or through a mechanical device that utilizes a standard telephone, for the purpose of using the telephone line to transmit an emergency message upon the activation of the alarm system.

Keypad means a device that allows control of an alarm system by the manual entry of a coded sequence of numbers or letters.

Local alarm means any alarm emitting audible and/or visual signals in, at and/or on the alarm site when activated and which results in notification being made directly or indirectly to the police department.

Malicious false alarm means the intentional false reporting to the police department of a police emergency condition; or the intentional setting off of an alarm system which will cause another to report the signal to law enforcement. Malicious false alarm does not include the testing of an alarm system by a licensed alarm business under guidelines established by the police department.

Monitoring station means an office to which remote police alarm and supervisory signaling devices are connected, where trained personnel are on duty and in attendance at all times to supervise the circuits terminating therein, investigate signals, and retransmit alarm signals to appropriate agencies.

Nonpolice response means police officers will not be dispatched to investigate a report of an alarm system.

Notice means written notice given by personal service upon the permit holder, or written notice given by the United States Postal Service, postage prepaid, to the permit holder at the permit holder's last known address.

One plus duress alarm means the manual activation of a silent alarm signal by entering at a keypad a code that adds one to the last digit of the normal arm/disarm code (normal code = 1234; one plus duress code = 1235).

Panic alarm means any system, device, or mechanism, activated by an individual on or near the premises, to alert others that robbery or any other crime is in progress, or that the use is in the need of immediate assistance or aid in order to avoid injury or serious bodily harm. A panic alarm includes the manual entry of any combination of numbers into a keypad intended for an emergency summons of police.

Permit means a certificate of authorization issued by the alarm administrator to the person in control of the property which authorizes the operation of an alarm system at that location.

Permit holder means the individual person, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity to whom an alarm system permit is issued by the alarm administrator.

Person means any individual, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity.

Response means the arrival of a law enforcement officer at the premises where an alarm system has been activated indicating a police emergency at those premises.

Site means each location requiring an individual alarm system. An alarm system site is determined by each separate and distinct municipal address.

Suspension means the temporary cessation of police response to the site of a registered alarm system.

Takeover means the transaction or process by which an alarm user takes over control of an existing alarm system which was previously controlled by another alarm user.

Transmitting device means an instrument or radio transmission which sends a signal to a monitoring point indicating intrusion into a given protected area.

Verify means an attempt, by the alarm business or its representative, to contact the alarm site by telephone or other electronic means, whether or not actual contact is made, before requesting police dispatch, in an attempt to avoid an unnecessary alarm dispatch request.

Verify (double) means that the alarm business monitoring service shall call two telephone numbers rather than one telephone number before dispatching police.

(Ord. No. O-246-98, § 4¼-2, 9-23-98; Ord. No. O-114-2008, § 2, 6-17-08)

Cross reference

Definitions generally, § 1-2.