COLONIE – The town is looking to cut down on the number of “nuisance alarms” that send public safety personnel to a site without cause, costing thousands of dollars and taking resources off line when there could be a real emergency.
“The purpose of this law is to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the Town of Colonie by reducing the number of avoidable nuisance alarms,” said Richard Hack, the fire coordinator for the town, and the only speaker at a public hearing on a local law. “Nuisance alarms result in the unnecessary and ineffective use of police, ambulance and fire rescue personnel and equipment.”
Prior to a unanimous vote by the Town Board at its last meeting, the penalties for false alarms that summon a response by the emergency personnel was $15.
The new fine schedule for an alarm that unduly calls police to a site is nothing for the first three false alarms in a calendar year and $50 for the fourth, $100 for the fifth and $200 each for six or more. If a fire department or more than one agency responds, the fine is nothing for the first three unnecessary calls, $100 for the fourth, $250 for the fifth and $500 for the sixth and each subsequent call.
Anyone who does not pay the fine will be fined an additional $500 that will increase for each day the fine is delinquent.
Situations not included in the definition of a nuisance are alarms that are triggered by severe weather, when the person who activates the alarm acts in good faith and when a medical alert system is activated. The responding agency will determine if the alarm was a nuisance.
Prior to the local law, an approved application for an alarm system was necessary. Now those who have an alarm system must have a permit and the system must be installed and/or inspected by a town-approved company or entity.
The holder of any permit deemed a nuisance does have the opportunity to argue otherwise in front of an Alarm Review Board consisting of the deputy police chief, the senior fire protection specialist and the town attorney.
The prior fee was $50 per year for any alarm permit that is directly connected to the police department of a fire department. Under the new parameters, the new fee is $25 for two years. The fee is waived for residential alarms for those 62 and older.
Hack, who represented all 12 volunteer fire departments in town, said the local law has been in the works since 2009. But, since the chiefs generally serve one-year terms each new chief wanted a say in the matter so it took 13 years before it was ready to be brought to a vote.
He said there are a number of locations in the town where emergency crews are constantly answering alarms with no valid emergency and no explanation as to why they were beckoned.
“We respond to a number of calls for service for properly operating alarm services but there are the same number, or even more, of what we call nuisance alarms,” he said. “Alarms that are constantly going off for no reason and we are returning the same location several times and we get no information as to why the alarms are going off.”
He said part of the success of the local law is making business owners and residents aware of the issue, which is why they are allowed three times before fines are imposed.
An alarm system can be hard wired to a police or fire department or it can be a siren or a light on the exterior of a building alerting people to a potential problem. It does not include car alarms or single smoke alarms, like those commonly installed in a residence, for example.
The new fee structure and regulations do not apply to the villages of Colonie or Menands.
A false alarm constitutes an alarm that is activated by a faulty or a system that is not maintained and those that are triggered by cooking, smoking, steam or dust.
