Bill Caption

Fiscal Notes

Bill Analysis

HB 2162 would amend the Local Government Code to permit a municipality to impose a permit fee of up to $250 a year for alarm system locations other than residential locations. The bill would permit a municipality to refuse to respond to a location if the location has had more than eight other false alarms during the preceding 12 months.

It would prohibit a municipality from imposing a penalty for the report of a false alarm after three other applicable false alarms have occurred if visual proof of possible criminal activity recorded by an alarm systems monitor is provided to the municipality, would authorize a municipality to impose a penalty for the report of a false alarm by a person not licensed under the Private Security Act, would prohibit a municipality from imposing a penalty for the report of a false alarm by a person licensed under the act, and would prohibit a municipality from imposing or collecting any fine, fee, or penalty related to a false alarm or alarm system unless the fine, fee, or penalty is defined in the applicable ordinance.

The bill would exclude a municipality who does not respond to an alarm system signal from being liable for damages. The owner of a property may elect to exclude the municipality from receiving an alarm signal by an alarm system located on the owner's property. If this election is made it would authorize the municipality to impose a fee up to $250 for each law enforcement response to a signal from the alarm system

Vote Recommendation Notes

5/27 Update:

No changes have been made to this bill in House committee. The second chamber sponsor is Sen. Campbell. 

First chamber recommendation below:

This bill would make mostly administrative, clerical, and non-substantive updates to current code with no discernible connection to our liberty principles, therefore we are neutral on HB 2162.