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Clarification of Questions and Concerns Voiced at the Alarm Business Meeting on Wednesday, October 17, 2001 at the City Building
Date: November 8, 2001
Contact: LaTricia Harper, Public Information Officer
 : LHarper@wichita.gov
 : (316) 268-4351
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Ordinance Section 3.40.020(b) Definitions, states that " 'Alarm system' means an assembly of equipment or devices or a single device arranged to signal the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention and to which law enforcement, fire or emergency medical personnel are expected to respond". This definition includes monitored fire alarm signals.
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Ordinance Section 3.40.070(4)(d) Required Operational Practices, states that "An alarm service company, at the time of an alarm, shall attempt to contact the user by telephone to verify that the alarm is valid". This language acknowledges that it may not always be possible to contact the alarm user prior to notifying the communications center.
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It was determined at the meeting, that most of the concerns regarding fees charged to alarm businesses or alarm users that would fall into a "gray" area, could be resolved through the appeal process included in the ordinance
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Alarm businesses that offer monitoring services are governed by this ordinance. The ordinance states very clearly in Section 3.40.020 (b) Definitions, that the term " 'Alarm business'…shall also include alarm servicing companies who engage in the activity of monitoring or responding to alarm systems".
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The alarm monitoring business is ultimately responsible for ensuring that current alarm users are registered. If the alarm business contracting with the alarm user to provide monitoring service is not the actual monitoring business, it will be necessary for the alarm monitoring business to coordinate the registration of the alarm user to decide which alarm business will register the alarm user and to make sure that an alarm user is not registered twice or missed in the initial current alarm user registration process.
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After the initial registration of current alarm users, alarm businesses will be required to complete the pre-numbered alarm user permit registration form at the time an alarm user that requests city emergency personnel as the first response to an alarm activation is signed up for monitoring services. If the alarm business contracting with the alarm user to provide monitoring service is not the actual monitoring business, it will be necessary for the alarm monitoring business to coordinate the registration of the alarm user when it's services are contracted to the alarm user.
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Alarm monitoring businesses will be required to provide the alarm user's city-assigned permit number, name and address when contacting the communications center to dispatch to an alarm user address effective February 1, 2002. (New date).
The ten dollar ($10) per alarm user registration fee is due and payable by an alarm business to the City of Wichita. Comments at the meeting indicated that some alarm businesses were planning to collect the ten dollar ($10) registration fee, and possibly an administrative fee for processing the registration, from the alarm user. The language of the ordinance does not prohibit this cost recovery by an alarm business.
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