CHAPTER 12 Title 5 Burglar Alarms
CHAPTER 12
BURGLAR/ROBBERY ALARMS
SECTION:
5-12-1: Purpose
5-12-2: Definitions
5-12-3: Alarm Users Permits Required
5-12-4: Automatic Dialing Device Certain Interconnections Prohibited
5-12-5: False Alarms and Permit Revocation
5-12-6: Confidentiality and Statistics
5-12-7: Notification
5-12-8: Fees
5-12-9: Penalties
5-12-1: PURPOSE: The purposes of this Ordinance are: (a) to govern burglary and robbery
alarm systems, require permits, establish fees, provide for revocation of permits, provide for
punishment of violations and establish a system of administration. (b) to regulate and minimize
the number of false burglar alarms occurring within the City. (c) to protect citizens against the
increased cost of enforcement (d) to protect and promote the public health, peace, safety,
welfare and tranquility of the inhabitants of the City of Ammon, Bonneville County, Idaho.
5-12-2: DEFINITIONS: Certain words and phrases used in this Ordinance are defined as
follows:
Alarm Business: The business by an individual, partnership, corporation, or other entity of
selling, leasing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, moving or installing any
alarm system or causing to be sold, leased, maintained, serviced, repaired, altered, replaced,
moved or installed any alarm system in or on any building, structure or facility.
Alarm System: Any assembly of equipment, mechanical or electrical, arranged to signal the
occurrence of an illegal entry or other activity requiring urgent attention and to which police are
expected to respond.
Alarm User: The person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization
of any kind in control of any building, structure or facility wherein an alarm system is maintained.
Automatic Dialing Device: A device which is interconnected to a telephone line and is
programmed to select a predetermined telephone number and transmit by voice message or
code signal an emergency message indicating a need for emergency response.
Burglary Alarm System: An alarm system signaling an entry or attempted entry into the area
protected by the system.
False Alarm: An alarm signal, eliciting a response by a law enforcement officer when a
situation requiring a response by a law enforcement officer does not in fact exist, but does not
Title 5, Chapter 12 Page 1 of 5 Revised 7-12-2018
include an alarm signal caused by violent conditions or nature or other extraordinary
circumstances not reasonably subject to control by the alarm business operator or alarm user.
Interconnect: To connect an alarm system including an automatic dialing device to a
telephone line, either directly or through a mechanical device that utilize a telephone, for the
purpose of using the telephone line to transmit a message upon the activation of the alarm
system.
Primary Trunk Line: A telephone line serving the Public Safety Communications that is
designated to receive emergency calls.
Public Safety Communications: The City/County facility used to receive emergency and
general information from the public to be dispatched to the respective police departments
utilizing communications.
Robbery Alarm System: An alarm system signaling a robbery of attempted robbery.
5-12-3: ALARM USERS PERMITS REQUIRED:
(A) Every alarm user shall obtain an alarm user’s permit for each system from the Ammon
City Building upon the effective date of this ordinance or prior to use of an alarm
system. Users of systems using robbery and burglary alarm capabilities shall obtain
permits. Application for a burglary or robbery alarm user’s permit and a fee shall be
filed with the Ammon City Building each year. Each permit shall bear the signature of
the City Clerk and shall expire one (1) year from the date of issue, unless another date
is endorsed on the license by the Clerk. The permit shall be physically upon the
premises using the alarm system and shall be available for inspection by the
Enforcement Officer or Bonneville County law enforcement official. Commercial alarm
user permits shall expire on the same date as the business license issued to the
business. The first year’s alarm user permit issued after adoption of this Chapter, shall
be prorated in cost to the month of expiration of the current business license.
(B) If a residential alarm user is over the age of sixty-five (65) and is the primary resident
of the residence and if no business is conducted in the residence, a user’s permit may
be obtained from the Ammon City Building according to Section 5-12-3 (A) without the
payment of a fee.
(C) An additional fee shall be charged in addition to the fee provided in Section 5-12-3 (A)
to a user who fails to obtain a permit within sixty (60) days after the effective date of
this ordinance, or who is more than fifteen (15) days delinquent in renewing a permit,
or any new operating without first obtaining a permit after the effective date of this
ordinance.
(D) An alarm user required by federal, state, county or municipal statute, regulation, rule or
ordinance to install, maintain and operate an alarm system shall be subject to this
ordinance; provided:
1. A permit shall be designated a special alarm user’s permit;
2. A special alarm user’s permit for a system which has four (4) or more false
alarms in a permit year shall not be subject to revocation under Section 5-12-5,
Title 5, Chapter 12 Page 2 of 5 Revised 7-12-2018
but the holder of the permit shall pay a fee with the submission of the report
required by Section 5-12-5 (B),1;
3. For each false alarm over four (4) in a permit year, upon written demand by the
Enforcement Officer, the holder of a special user’s permit shall pay a fee;
4. The payment of any fee provided for in subsections 2 and 3 of this section shall
not be deemed to extend the terms of the permit.
(E) An alarm user which is a governmental political unit shall be subject to this ordinance;
but a permit shall be issued without payment of a fee and shall not be subject to
revocation, payment of additional fees or the imposition of any penalty provided herein.
5-12-4: AUTOMATIC DIALING DEVICE. CERTAIN INTERCONNECTIONS PROHIBITED:
(A) It is unlawful for any person to program an automatic dialing device to select a primary
trunk line; and it is unlawful for an alarm user to fail to disconnect or reprogram an
automatic dialing device which is programmed to select a primary trunk line within
twelve (12) hours of receipt of written notice from the City that it is so programmed.
(B) Within sixty (60) days after the effective date of this ordinance, all existing automatic
dialing devices programmed to select a primary trunk line shall be reprogrammed or
disconnected.
(C) It is unlawful for any person to program an automatic dialing device to select any
telephone line assigned to the City and/or County other than one so authorized; and it
is unlawful for an alarm user to fail to disconnect or reprogram such device within
twelve (12) hours of receipt of written notice from the City and/or County that an
automatic dialing device is so programmed.
5-12-5: FALSE ALARMS AND PERMIT REVOCATION:
(A) Any alarm system which has four (4) or more false alarms within a permit year shall be
subject to permit revocation as provided herein.
(B) If Bonneville County records four (4) or more false alarms within a permit year for any
alarm system:
1. The City shall notify the alarm user by certified mail of such fact and direct that
the user submit a report to the Enforcement Officer within ten (10) days of receipt
of the notice describing actions taken or to be taken to discover and eliminate the
cause of the false alarms.
2. If the alarm user submits a report as directed, the Enforcement Officer and the
City Clerk shall determine if the actions taken or to be taken will prevent the
occurrence of false alarms; if they determine that the action will prevent the
occurrence of false alarms, they shall notify the alarm user, in writing, that the
permit will not be revoked at that time and that if one (1) more false alarm occurs
within the permit year, the permit will be summarily revoked.
3. If no report is submitted, or if the Enforcement Officer and City Clerk determines
that the actions taken or to be taken will not prevent the occurrence of false
alarms, the City shall give notice by certified mail to the user that the permit will
Title 5, Chapter 12 Page 3 of 5 Revised 7-12-2018
be revoked without further notice on the tenth (10) day after the date of the notice
if the user does not file within that period a written request for a hearing.
4. If a hearing is requested, written notice of the time and place of the hearing shall
be served on the user by the City by certified mail at least ten (10) days prior to
the date set for the hearing, which date shall not be more than twenty-one (21)
nor less than ten (10) days after the filing of the request for hearing.
5. The hearing shall be held before a Hearing Board from the City which shall
consist of, the City Clerk, City Enforcement Officer and a representative from the
Ammon Division of the Bonneville County Sherriff’s Office. The alarm user shall
have the right to present written or oral evidence, subject to the right of cross-
examination. If the Hearing Board determines that four (4) or more false alarms
have occurred in a permit year, and that the user has not taken actions which will
prevent the occurrence of false alarms, the Hearing Board shall issue written
findings to that effect and the City Clerk shall revoke the user’s permit.
6. Decisions of the Hearing Board may be appealed to the City Council within
twenty (20) days of said revocation. Said action of appeal shall be placed on the
next available City Council meeting after a decision to revoke a user permit has
been issued by the Hearing Board.
7. An alarm user shall immediately discontinue use of the alarm system upon being
notified by certified mail of the revocation of a permit pursuant to Section 5-12-5
(3) or 5-12-5 (5).
8. An alarm user whose permit has been revoked may apply for a revoked user’s
permit as provided in Section 5-12-3 (B). The City Clerk shall not be required to
issue a revoked user’s permit, unless satisfied that the user’s system has been
properly serviced and its deficiencies corrected. The City may impose reasonable
restrictions and conditions upon the user, before issuing a revoked user’s permit,
which restrictions and conditions shall be written on the permit and shall provide
for summary revocation on the occurrence of four (4) false more false alarms in
the permit year.
9. In situations permitting summary revocation under Section 5-12-5 (B) 2 and 5-12-
rd
5 (B) (7), revocation shall be effective on the third (3) day following the mailing
by certified mail by the City of a notice of revocation. There shall be no appeal of
a summary revocation.
10. A revoked user’s permit shall be obtained from the Ammon City Building by filing
an application and paying the applicable fee. The payment of any revoked user
permit fee shall not extend the term of the original permit period. Each permit
shall bear the signature of the City Clerk and shall bear the same expiration date
as the revoked permit. The permit shall be physically upon the premises using
the alarm system and shall be available for inspection by the Enforcement Officer
or Bonneville County law enforcement official.
5-12-6: CONFIDENTIALITY AND STATISTICS:
(A) All information submitted in compliance with this ordinance shall be held in the strictest
confidence and shall be deemed a public record exempt from disclosure pursuant to
state statute; and any violation of confidentiality shall be deemed a violation of this
ordinance. The City shall be charged with the sole responsibility for the maintenance of
all records of any kind whatsoever under this ordinance.
Title 5, Chapter 12 Page 4 of 5 Revised 7-12-2018
(B) Subject to the requirements of confidentiality, the City shall develop and maintain
statistics having the purpose of assisting alarm system evaluation for use by members
of the public.
5-12-7: NOTIFICATION: The City shall send a copy via email to the law enforcement agency
providing emergency response. Copies shall be sent via mail as requested by the responding
agency.
5-12-8: FEES: All fees associated with this Chapter, shall be determined by a schedule of fees
adopted by the City Council by resolution which may be amended from time to time.
EXCEPTION: Offices or businesses operated by the State of Idaho or the Federal Government
shall be exempt from the Burglar Alarm fee. These offices or businesses shall continue to be
licensed and provide all information required of a burglar alarm license to the City Clerk.
5-12-9: VIOLATIONS AND PENALTIES: Any violation of the provisions of this chapter shall
be deemed an infraction and shall be subject to penalties prescribed for such violations under
section 1-4-2 of this code and Idaho Code 18-113A. Each day such violation continues, shall be
a separate violation, which shall be deemed as a separate infraction and a citation may be issued
therefore.
Title 5, Chapter 12 Page 5 of 5 Revised 7-12-2018