1. The penalty for a false alarm is a civil infraction, and the alarm system user shall be penalized by an administrative service fee to the city according to the following schedule:

2. All administrative service fees assessed under this ordinance shall be paid to the city within thirty (30) days of the date that notice of the assessment of the service fee is mailed to the alarm user. If any service fee is not paid within the time set forth above, a $35.00 late fee shall be assessed for each month thereafter that the fee remains unpaid.

3. The city may use all available legal remedies to collect delinquent service fees and late penalties. If the delinquent service fee is owed by a business, payment of the fee and late penalties may be required prior to the renewal of the alarm user’s Business or Alcoholic Beverage License.

4. An alarm permit shall be suspended for any failure by the alarm user to pay any administrative service fee and applicable late penalties imposed pursuant to this chapter within 120 days of the date that notice of the assessment of the service fee is mailed to the alarm user. The Public Safety Director may also suspend any alarm permit if the Director determines that the alarm system in question has a history of unreliability, which unreliability shall be presumed upon the occurrence of five (5) false alarms within a ninety (90) day period.

5. A suspension for unreliability may be lifted upon a showing that the conditions which caused the false alarms have been corrected. An alarm user whose alarm permit is suspended by the Director shall pay a reinstatement fee of fifty dollars ($50) to the city before such permit shall be reinstated.

6. It shall be unlawful, and the basis for revocation of an alarm monitoring system company’s business license, to knowingly provide services to an alarm user which has been ordered to be disconnected from service pursuant to the provisions of this section.

7. Any person who uses, maintains, operates or is in control of any operational alarm system in the city while the alarm permit for such alarm system is suspended shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.

8. To discourage false alarms, the Department shall adopt a process of providing written notice to an alarm user, who has more than one false alarm in a calendar year, of the consequences of excessive false alarms, the need to take corrective action, and the prospect that four (4) false alarms in a six (6) month period may result in the Department disregarding any future alarms from the premises unless independent information that verifies the need for an immediate response is provided.

9. Prior to determining not to respond to a premises, the Director shall provide written notice to the user that: