Vermont § 1871 - Department of Public Safety; Commissioner

§ 1871. Department of Public Safety; Commissioner

• (a) Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety, created by 3 V.S.A. § 212, shall include a Commissioner of Public Safety. (b) Head of the Department. The head of the Department shall be the Commissioner of Public Safety, who shall be
  a citizen of the United States and shall be selected on the basis of training, experience,
  and qualifications. The Commissioner shall be appointed by the Governor, with the
  advice and consent of the Senate. (c) Contract for security and traffic control. The Commissioner of Public Safety may contract for security and related traffic control,
  and receive reimbursement for reasonable costs that shall include costs associated
  with providing personnel, benefits, equipment, vehicles, insurances, and related expenses.
  These reimbursements shall be credited to a special fund established pursuant to 32 V.S.A. chapter 7, subchapter 5, and be available to offset costs of providing those services. (d) Collection of fees. The Commissioner of Public Safety shall collect fees for the termination of alarms
  at State Police facilities and for response to false alarms. (e) Termination fees. (1) The termination fee for a single dedicated circuit alarm at a State Police facility
  will be $250.00 per user per year. (2) An alarm company or monitoring service that is authorized to install a multi-unit
  alarm panel at a State Police facility will be assessed a fee of $25.00 per alarm
  with a minimum fee of $250.00 per panel per year. (3) An individual or business who programs a tape dialer or other automatic notification
  device to transmit a voice message to a State Police facility, informing the police
  of a burglary or other emergency, must register such dialer with the State Police
  facility and will be assessed a registration fee of $50.00 per year. The fee includes
  an onsite inspection by a member of the State Police. (4) If State Police respond to an alarm and it is found that the alarm was transmitted
  by an unregistered tape dialer or similar notification device, a registration fee
  of $50.00 will be assessed subsequent to that response. Unpaid registration fees are
  considered to be alarms in default and handled in accordance with the provisions of
  the section on response terminations. (f) False alarms. (1) A false alarm is notification given to the State Police by electronic or telephonic
  means that an emergency situation exists, when an emergency or other circumstance
  that could be perceived as an emergency does not exist and to which the State Police
  have responded. (2) Alarm periods shall be based on the calendar year, January 1 through December 31. (3) The first false alarm in an alarm period shall be at no cost. The second false alarm
  in the alarm period shall be assessed at $50.00 and each successive false alarm in
  the same alarm period shall be assessed at $75.00. (g) Response terminations. (1) Alarm fees that have been assessed and not paid for a period of 60 days from the date
  of the last billing are considered alarms in default and the State Police station
  commander, with the concurrence of the State Police troop commander, may notify the
  alarm holder that the State Police will no longer respond to alarms at that location
  as long as the alarm holder is in default. (2) When in the opinion of the station commander, with the concurrence of the troop commander,
  there exists a chronic false alarm problem that the alarm holder appears not to have
  taken reasonable measures to correct, the station commander may send notification
  that the State Police will no longer respond to alarms at that location until the
  problem is corrected even if the alarm holder is not in default on fees assessed. (h) Appeal. An alarm holder may appeal a decision of the station commander to the troop commander. (i) Contract for dispatch functions. The Commissioner of Public Safety may enter into contractual arrangements to perform
  dispatching functions for State, municipal, or other emergency services. (j) Charges collected. Charges collected under subsections (e), (f), and (i) of this section shall be credited
  to the Vermont Law Telecommunications Special Fund and shall be available to the Department
  to offset the costs of providing the services. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 36, eff. March 1, 1961; 1985, No. 4, eff. March 9, 1985; 1995, No. 178 (Adj. Sess.), § 342, eff. May 22, 1996; 1995, No. 186 (Adj. Sess.), § 8, eff. May 22, 1996; 1999, No. 49, § 161; 1999, No. 66 (Adj. Sess.), § 49, eff. Feb. 8, 2000; 2005, No. 209 (Adj. Sess.), § 30; 2019, No. 166 (Adj. Sess.), § 25, eff. Oct. 1, 2020; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 385, eff. July 1, 2022.)