The Boro of Hillsdale has adopted guidelines for the use of residential and commercial alarm systems.  The HPD maintains a database of all alarm systems, alarm company contacts, home/business owners, as well as additional keyholders and any other important information about a business or dwelling. 

In order to expedite emergency response, and to help arriving first-responders learn more about the location of an alarm call, all residents and businesses must register their alarms with the HPD.  Moreover, it is especially important to keep that information in the database current.

Alarm registration and updates can be made at the Police Desk, twenty-four hours per day.  Below is a summary of the Boro's Alarm Ordinances , regulating the use of both business and residential fire/burglar alarms.

84-3. Dial Alarms

A. No dial alarm shall be permitted unless it shall first have been:

(1)Registered with the Chief Law Enforcement Officer as hereinafter required.

B. All dial alarms shall be coded to dial a special separate number which shall be provided by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer. No dial alarm shall be coded to dial the number of the general police switchboard of the Borough of Hillsdale.

C. All dial alarms shall be coded as well to notify a relative, neighbor or other third party who shall be named in the registration required by this chapter and who will respond within fifteen (15) minutes of notification.

D. All dial alarms shall be capable of being disconnected by the owner to permit a call to the police switchboard in the event that a false alarm occurs.

E.The owner of each dial alarm system shall pay to the Borough of Hillsdale an annual fee as provided in Chapter 138, Fees, to cover the cost of registration and testing, and to amortize the cost of the special telephone line or lines required in Police Headquarters, along with ancillary tape devices necessitated by these systems.

F.Owners of dial alarms shall be governed by the false alarm procedures and penalties set forth in this chapter.

G.If any dial alarm shall hereafter be found to be dialing the general Police Headquarters number rather than the special telephone number reserved for dial alarms, the occupant of the building or other person in whose name the telephone is listed shall be sent a notice, in writing, by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer requiring compliance with the terms of this chapter. If the occupant or telephone subscriber shall fail within thirty (30) days after receipt of said notice to comply, he or she shall be liable to a penalty as provided in Chapter 226, Penalties.

H. The contents of any recorded message from a dial alarm must be intelligible and in a format approved by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer. No such message shall be transmitted more than three (3) times as a result of a single stimulus of the mechanism. Messages shall not exceed fifteen (15) seconds, and the time gap between delivery shall be approximately ten (10) seconds.

I.The sensory mechanism of dial alarms shall be adjusted so as to suppress false indications and not to be actuated by impulses due to pressure changes in water pipes, short flashes of light, wind, noises, rattling or vibration of doors or windows or other forces unrelated to general alarms.

J. All components of dial alarms shall be maintained by the owner in good repair. When evidence exists that there has been failure to comply with the operational requirements of this chapter, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer is then authorized to demand that such device be disconnected until such time as compliance with such requirements is reestablished.

84-4 Alarm Registration

No person shall install, operate or maintain any alarm system unless the alarm system has been registered with the Chief Law Enforcement Officer as follows:

A. Alarm system connected to alarm console. The alarm system of each permittee shall be deemed registered at such time as the permit therefor is issued.

B. Dial alarm system. Am alarm system employing the dial alarm shall be deemed registered when the annual dial alarm fee is remitted to the Borough and the system has been approved by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer.

C. Local alarm system.

(1)A local alarm system shall be deemed registered when the occupant of the building in which it is installed shall have filed with the Chief Law Enforcement Officer a registration form, which shall include, among other data, the location of the device, the name of the installer of said device, the type of device, provisions relating to false alarms and testing procedures, a list of persons to be contacted in the event of an alarm and other information as may be required by the Chief.

(2)No further or renewed registration shall be required for a local alarm system unless and until there has occurred any material change in the information previously submitted with respect to such local alarm system. It shall be the duty of the occupant of a building served by a local alarm system, within ten (10) days after a change in information previously submitted to the Borough shall have occurred, to file a supplemental or revised registration containing accurate current information with respect to the data required by the registration form.

(3)No charge shall be made for the filing of any local alarm registration or any amended, revised or supplemental local alarm registration.

84-5. False Alarms

In the case of a false alarm, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer shall cause an investigation to be made and keep a record of said alarm on file. For the first and second false alarm in any given calendar year, a warning shall be issued; for the third or subsequent false alarm in the same calendar year, a penalty as provided in Chapter 226, Penalties, shall be paid to the Borough of Hillsdale.

False Alarm Penalties

1st Offense  Verbal Warning

2nd Offense Written Warning

3rd Offense $25.00 Dollar Fine

4th Offense and Susequent Offense $40.00 Dollar Fine