BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1. Amend Chapter 12, Title 24 of the Delaware Code by designating the existing language thereof as "Subchapter I. Licensure." and by adding thereto the following new subchapter:

"Subchapter II. Alarm Systems.

§ 1221. Purpose.

1. The purpose of this subchapter is to encourage alarm users and alarm companies to properly use and maintain the operational effectiveness of alarm systems in order to improve the reliability of alarm systems and reduce or eliminate false alarms.
2. This subchapter governs alarm systems intended to summon law enforcement response, and provides for local ordinances that require penalties, registration, fees, provide for penalties for violations, establish a system of administration, and set conditions for suspension of police response or revocation of registration.

1. 'Advisory Board' means persons designated by a governing authority that should be representative of the community, alarm users, the alarm industry, and law enforcement. The advisory board should review and recommend false alarm reduction efforts and report to the governing authority.
2. 'Alarm Installation Company' means a person in the business of selling, providing, maintaining, servicing, repairing, altering, replacing, moving or installing an alarm system in an alarm site.
3. 'Alarm Dispatch Request' means a notification to a law enforcement agency that an alarm, either manual or automatic, has been activated at a particular alarm site.
4. 'Alarm Registration' (or 'Permits') means authorization granted by the alarm administrator to an alarm user to operate an alarm system.
5. 'Alarm Site' means a single fixed premise or location served by an alarm system or sysems. Each unit, if served by a separate alarm system in a multi-unit building or complex, shall be considered a separate alarm site.
6. 'Alarm System' means a device or series of devices, including, but not limited to, hardwired systems and systems interconnected with a radio frequency method such as cellular or private radio signals, which emit or transmit a remote or local audible, visual or electronic signal indicating an alarm condition and intended to summon law enforcement response, including local alarm systems. Alarm system does not include an alarm installed in a vehicle or on someone's person unless the vehicle or the personal alarm is permanently located at a site.
7. 'Alarm User' means any person, who has contracted for monitoring, repair, installation or maintenance service from an alarm installation company and/or monitoring company or an alarm system, or who owns or operates an alarm system which is not monitored, maintained or repaired under contract.
8. 'Alarm User Awareness Class' means a class conducted for the purpose of educating alarm users about the responsible use, operation, and maintenance of alarm systems and the problems created by false alarms.
9. 'Cancellation' means the process where response is terminated when a monitoring company (designated by the alarm user) for the alarm site notifies the responding law enforcement agency that there is not an existing situation at the alarm site requiring law enforcement agency response after an alarm dispatch request.
10. 'Conversion' means the transaction or process by which one alarm installation company or monitoring company begins the servicing and /or monitoring of a previously unmonitored alarm system or an alarm system previously serviced and/or monitored by another alarm company.
11. 'Duress Alarm' means a silent alarm system signal generated by the entry of a designated code into an arming station in order to signal that the alarm user is being forced to turn off the system and requires law enforcement response.
12. 'False Alarm' shall mean an alarm signal eliciting an urgent response by police when a situation requiring an urgent response did not exist at or about the time, but does not include and alarm signal caused by violent conditions of nature or other extraordinary circumstances not reasonably subject to control by the alarm user. For the purposes of determining the number of false alarms, multiple alarms occurring in any 24-hour period shall be counted as one (1) false alarm to allow the alarm user time to take corrective action, unless the false alarms were directly caused by the alarm user. The burden of proving that such alarm was not a false alarm shall be on the alarm user.
13. 'Holdup Alarm' means a silent alarm signal generated by the manual activation of a device intended to signal a robbery in progress.
14. 'Law Enforcement Authority' means the Commissioner, Superintendent, Chief of Police, Director or other authorized representative of a law enforcement agency.
15. 'License' means a license issued by the State of Delaware to an alarm installation company and/or monitoring company to sell, install, monitor, repair or replace alarm systems.
16. 'Local Alarm System' means any alarm system, which is not monitored, that annunciates an alarm only at the alarm site.
17. 'Monitoring' means the process by which a monitoring company receives signals from an alarm system and relays an alarm dispatch request for the purpose of summoning law enforcement to the alarm site.
18. 'Monitoring Company' means a person in the business of providing monitoring services.
19. 'One Plus Duress Alarm' means the manual activation of a silent alarm signal by entering at an arming station a code that adds one to the last digit of the normal arm/disarm code (e.g., normal code = 1234, One Plus Duress Code = 1235).
20. 'Panic Alarm' means an audible alarm system signal generated by the manual activation of a device intended to signal a life threatening or emergency situation requiring law enforcement response.
21. 'Person' means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, organization or similar entity.
22. 'Responder' means an individual capable of reaching the alarm site within a time curtain and having access to the alarm site, the code to the alarm system and the authority to approve repairs to the alarm system.
23. 'SIA Control Panel Standards CP-01' means the ANSI - American National Standard Institute approved Security Industry Association - SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard, as may be updated from time to time, that details recommended design features for security system control panels and their associated arming and disarming devices to reduce the incidence of false alarms. Control panels built and tested to this standard by Underwriters Laboratory (UL), or other nationally recognized testing organizations, will be marked to state: 'Design evaluated in accordance with SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard Features for False Alarm Reduction'.
24. '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.
25. 'Verify' means an attempt by the monitoring company, or its representative, to contact the alarm site by telephonic or other electronic means, whether or not actual contact with a person is made, to determine whether an alarm signal is valid before requesting law enforcement dispatch, in an attempt to avoid an unnecessary alarm dispatch request. When telephonic verification is applied, a second phone call to a different number shall be made when an acceptable response to the first call is not obtained.

1. No alarm user shall operate, or cause to be operated, an alarm system at its alarm site without a valid alarm registration. A separate alarm registration is required for each alarm site.
2. The fee for an alarm registration or an alarm registration renewal shall be established in each jurisdiction by a local ordinance.
3. Any false statement of a material fact made by an applicant for the purpose of obtaining an alarm registration shall be sufficient cause for refusal to issue a registration.

1. An alarm user shall:

1. Maintain the alarm site and the alarm system in a manner that will minimize or eliminate false alarms;
2. Make every reasonable effort to have a responder travel to the alarm system's location within a period of time specified by the local authority having jurisdiction when requested by the law enforcement agency in order to:

1. deactivate an alarm system;
2. provide access to the alarm site; and/or
3. provide alternative security for the alarm site.

1. Not activate an alarm system for any reason other than an occurrence of an event that the alarm system was intended to report.

1. An alarm user shall maintain at each alarm site, a set of written operating instructions for each alarm system.
2. All alarm users shall agree with their alarm installation company and/or monitoring company to go through an 'acclimation period' for the first seven (7) days after installation of an alarm system during which time the alarm installation company and/or monitoring company will have no obligation to and will not respond to any alarm signal from the alarm site and will not make an alarm dispatch request to law enforcement.

1. The alarm installation company shall provide written and oral instructions to each of its alarm users in the proper use and operation of their alarm system. Such instructions will specifically include all instructions necessary to turn the alarm system on and off and to avoid false alarms.
2. Upon the effective date of this Act, alarm installation companies shall not program alarm systems so that they are capable of sending one plus duress alarms. Monitoring companies may continue to report one plus duress alarms received from alarm systems programmed with one plus duress alarms prior to enactment of this Act. However, upon the effective date of this Act, when a takeover or conversion occurs or if an alarm user requests an alarm system inspection or modification, an alarm installation company must remove the one plus duress alarm capability from such alarm systems.
3. Upon the effective date of this Act, alarm installation companies shall not install a device to activate a holdup alarm, which is a single action, non-recessed button.
4. Ninety (90) days after enactment of this Act, and conditioned upon reasonable availability, the alarm installation companies shall, on new installations, use only alarm control panels which meet SIA Control Panel Standard CP-01.
5. The monitoring company shall not make an alarm dispatch request of a law enforcement agency in response to a burglar alarm signal, excluding panic, duress and holdup signals, during the first seven (7) days following an alarm system installation. The alarm administrator may grant an alarm user’s request for an exemption from this waiting period based upon a determination that special circumstances substantiate the need for the exemption.
6. A monitoring company shall:

1. Verify every alarm signal, except a duress or holdup alarm activation, before requesting a law enforcement response to an alarm system signal;
2. Ensure that all alarm users of alarm systems equipped with a duress, holdup or panic alarm are given adequate training as to the proper use of the duress, holdup or panic alarm; and
3. Upon the effective date of this Act, monitoring companies must maintain for a period of at least one (1) year from the date of the alarm dispatch request, records relating to alarm dispatch requests. Records must include the name, address and telephone number of the alarm user, the alarm system zone(s) activated, the time of alarm dispatch request and evidence of an attempt to verify. The alarm administrator may request copies of such records for individually named alarm users. If the request is made within sixty (60) days of an alarm dispatch request, the monitoring company shall furnish requested records within three (3) business days of receiving the request. If the records are requested between sixty (60) days to one (1) year after an alarm dispatch request, the monitoring company shall furnish the requested records within thirty (30) days of receiving the request.

1. An alarm user shall be subject to a progressive fine structure that shall depend on the number of false alarms within a 12-month period. However, there shall be at least two (2) false responses in any 12-month period for which no fine shall be assessed.
2. In addition, any person operating a non-registered alarm system will be subject to a fine for each false alarm in addition to any other fines. The alarm advisory board may waive this additional fine for a non-registered system if the alarm user submits an application for alarm registration within ten (10) days after notification of such violation.
3. An alarm user may have the option of attending an alarm user awareness class in lieu of paying one (1)-assessed fine.
4. If cancellation occurs prior to law enforcement arriving at the scene, this is not a false alarm and no fine will be assessed.
5. The alarm installation company shall be assessed a fine if the officer responding to the false alarm determines that an on-site employee of the alarm installation company directly caused the false alarm. In this situation, the false alarm will not be counted against the alarm user.
6. The monitoring company shall be issued a fine for each failure to verify alarm system signals.
7. The alarm installation company shall be issued a fine if an alarm installation company employee knowingly made a false statement concerning the inspection of an alarm site or the performance of an alarm system.
8. Notice of the right of appeal under this Act will be included with any fines.
9. Fines shall be established by means of a local ordinance for each jurisdiction.

1. The local jurisdiction or the Delaware State Police may suspend law enforcement response to an alarm site by revoking the alarm registration if it is determined that:

1. the alarm user has four (4) or more false alarms in a twelve (12) month period excluding duress, holdup or panic alarms;
2. there is a statement of a material fact known to be false in the application for a registration;
3. the alarm user has failed to make timely payment of a fine assessed under § 1226; or
4. the alarm user has failed to submit a written certification from an alarm installation company that complies with the requirements of this Act, stating that the alarm system has been inspected, repaired and/or additional training has been conducted by the alarm installation company.

1. A person commits an offense if he or she operates an alarm system during the period in which his or her alarm registration is revoked and is subject to enforcement and penalties set forth in a local ordinance. A monitoring company commits an offense if it continues alarm dispatch requests to an alarm site after notification by the authority having jurisdiction that the registration has been revoked and is subject to enforcement and penalties set forth in local ordinances.
2. Unless there is separate evidence that there is a crime in progress, the law enforcement authority will refuse law enforcement response to an alarm dispatch request at an alarm site for which the alarm registration is revoked.

Section 2. The provisions of this Act are severable. If a Court determines that a word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, subsection, section, or any other provision of this Act is invalid or that the application thereof of any part of the provision to any person or circumstance is invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this Act and the remaining provisions and the application of those provisions to other persons or circumstances, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, are not affected by that decision and to that end the provisions of this Act are declared to be severable.