1. “Alarm agent” means any person employed by an alarm business whose duties include the monitoring, altering, installing, maintaining, moving, repairing, replacing, selling, servicing, responding to, or causing others to respond to an alarm device. Personnel involved in new construction not in the employ of an alarm business may be involved under contracts or subcontracts in the use or installation of alarm systems. Such persons are not required to obtain identification cards as alarm agents or obtain licenses as alarm businesses.

2. “Alarm business” means any business operated by a person for a profit which engages in the activity of monitoring, altering, installing, leasing, maintaining, repairing, replacing, selling, or responding to a burglar or robbery alarm system, or which causes any of these activities to take place.

3. “Alarm system” means an assembly of equipment and devices (or a single device such as a solid state unit which plugs directly into a 110-volt AC line) arrange to signal the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention and to which police are expected to respond. In this chapter, the term “alarm system” shall include the terms “automatic robbery alarm systems,” “burglar alarm systems,” “robbery alarm systems,: and ”manual robbery alarm systems" as those terms are defined in this section. Fire alarm systems and alarm systems which monitor temperature, humidity or any other condition not directly related to the detection of an unauthorized intrusion into a premises or an attempted robbery at a premises are specifically excluded from the provisions of this chapter.

4. “Alarm user” means any person on whose premises an alarm system is maintained within the city except for alarm systems on motor vehicles or proprietary systems. If, ever, an alarm system on a motor vehicle is connected with an alarm system at a premises (other than a proprietary system), the person using such a system is an alarm user. Also excluded from this definition and from the coverage of this chapter are persons who use alarm systems to alert or signal persons within the premises in which the alarm system is located, of an attempted unauthorized intrusion or robbery attempt. If such a system, however, employs an audible signal emitting sounds or a flashing light or beacon designed to signal persons outside the premises, such system shall be within the definition of alarm system and shall be subject to this chapter.

5. “Annunciator” means the instrumentation on an alarm console at the receiving terminal of a signal line which through both visual and audible signals shows when an alarm device at a particular location has been activated or it may also indicate line trouble.

6. “ANSI” stands for the American National Standards Institute.

7. “Answering service” refers to an answering service providing among its services the service of receiving on a continuous basis through trained employees, emergency signals from alarm systems, and thereafter immediately relaying the message by live voice to the communication center of the Moses Lake Police Department.

8. “Automatic dialing device” refers to an alarm system which automatically sends over regular telephone lines, by direct connection or otherwise, a prerecorded voice message or coded signal indicating the existence of the emergency situation that the alarm system is designed to detect.

9. “Automatic robbery alarm system” means an alarm system on which the signal transmission is initiated by the action of the robber.

10. “Burglar alarm system” refers to an alarm system signaling an entry or attempted entry into the area protected by the system.

11. “Central station” means an office to which remote alarm and supervisory signaling devices are connected, where operators supervise the circuits, and where guards are maintained continuously to investigate signals.

12. “Central station equipment” refers to the signal receiving, recording, or re-transmitting equipment installed in the central station.

13. “Central station system” means a system in which the operation of electrical protection circuits and devices are signaled automatically to, recorded in, maintained, and supervised from a central station having trained operators and guards in attendance at all times.

14. “Direct connect” means an alarm system which has the capability of transmitting system signals to and receiving them at an agency or business.

15. “Direct line” means a nondialing telephone line or intercom line leading directly from a central station to the communication center of the Police Department that is for use only to report emergency signals on a person-to-person basis.

16. “False alarm” means the activation of a burglary and/or robbery system by other than a forced entry, attempted force entry, robbery, or attempted robbery caused by mechanical failure, malfunction, improper installation, or negligence of the owner or lessee of an alarm system or his employees or agents. Such terminology does not include, for example, alarms caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, or other violent conditions.

17. “Holdup alarm system” is the same as defined in this section as robbery alarm system.

18. “Interconnect” means to connect an alarm system to a voice-grade telephone line, either directly or through a mechanical device that utilizes a standard telephone, for the purpose of using the telephone line to transmit an emergency message upon the activation of the alarm system.

19. “Local alarm system” refers to a signaling system which when activated causes an audible and/or visual signaling device to be activated in or on the premises within which the system is installed.

20. “Manual robbery alarm system” refers to an alarm system in which the signal transmission is initiated by the direct action of the person attacked or by an observer of the attack.

21. “Modified central station” means an office to which remote alarm and supervisory signaling devices are connected, where operators supervise the circuits. Such modified central station is not listed by Underwriters’ Laboratories.

22. “Police Chief” means the Chief of the Police Department of the city or his designated representative.

23. “Police” or “Police Department” means the publicly supported Police Department of the city or any authorized agent thereof.

24. “Proprietary system” means an alarm system sounding and/or recording alarm and supervisory signals at a control center located within the protected premises, the control center being under the supervision of the proprietor of the protected premises. If a proprietary system includes a signal line connected directly or by means of an automatic dialing device to a central station, modified central station, or answering service, it thereby becomes an “alarm system” as defined in this section and must meet the requirements of this chapter.

25. “Remote signaling system” means an alarm signaling system which when activated by an alarm device transmits a signal from an alarm signaling device to a central location, other than the Police Department, where appropriate action is taken to investigate and respond to the signal.

26. “Robbery alarm system” refers to an alarm system signaling a robbery or attempted robbery.

27. “Signal line” refers to the transmission line through which the signal passes from one of the elements of the signal transmission to another.

28. “Subscriber” means a person who buys and/or leases, or otherwise obtains an alarm signaling system and thereafter contracts with or hires an alarm business to monitor and/or service the alarm device.

29. “Telephone company” means the utility that furnishes telephone services to the city.

30. “UL” stands for Underwriters’ Laboratories. (Ord. 927, 1979)