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Margate, NJ, Looks to Toughen Alarm Ordinance

Margate, NJ, city residents, spared from a sleepless night caused by a neighbor's incessant home alarm, may have former state Sen. Bill Gormley to thank.

City commissioners are set to introduce an ordinance that will allow the city police chief or a person he selects to disconnect audible burglary, smoke or similar alarms with broken timers that are "disturbing the public peace."

City ordinances already require audible alarms to have timers that turn them off after 15 minutes.

The ordinance would also lower the limit of legal false alarms from five to three in a calendar year, while increasing the penalties.

The city currently fines people $25 for each false alarm past the five-alarm limit. This proposal would fine a person $50 for the fourth alarm, $100 for the fifth, and $200 for each subsequent alarm.

At their Jan. 21 meeting, officials said the city was drafting the ordinance after hearing a complaint from Gormley and his wife regarding a neighbor's alarm. The alarm was going off throughout a recent night, officials said, but no one was authorized to turn it off.

"Let's just say no one slept well most of the night," Gormley said Wednesday.

Gormley, an attorney who lives in Margate, is an influential former state official who served as a Republican assemblyman from 1978 to 1982 and as state senator from 1982 to 2007.

He downplayed his role, saying he merely brought something to the attention of local officials, who were to be complimented on taking them seriously.

Police Chief David Wolfson said most newer alarms silently notify police or other security about a possible problem. He acknowledged that these older alarms could be a real nuisance, especially if they are sounding off in the middle of the night, and that police were aware of the problem.

Wolfson said the ordinance was not drafted because of Gormley's complaint.

"There's been complaints in the past that have gone by the wayside," he said, "so this is not the first time we have heard about this."

Similarly, Mayor Michael S. Becker said he had heard complaints through his daughter, a municipal police officer, for several years, but city officials have not acted on them before now.

"I know it's an issue that has been talked about for quite some time," he said.