Singapore legislation
Section 20
Section 20
False alarms
(1)
The licensing officer may charge according to a prescribed scale of charges for the attendance of any police officer at any premises in response to a call arising out of a false alarm.
(2)
For the purposes of this section, a false alarm is the activation of an alarm system by reasons other than fire or intruders.
(3)
The charge referred to in subsection (1) shall be payable by a prescribed licensed security service provider in respect of each occasion any police officer attends at any premises in response to a call arising out of a false alarm at those premises where —
the alarm system at those premises is installed or maintained by that licensed security service provider; and
the licensing officer is satisfied that the licensed security service provider had failed to take all reasonably practicable measures to verify whether the activation of the alarm system is a false alarm before making or causing the call to be made.
(4)
A person who —
intentionally gives a false alarm of fire or intruder; or
is reckless about whether it would cause a person to fear that there is a fire or an intruder, or cause an emergency service to respond to the alarm,shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
(5)
A court convicting an offender of an offence of contravening subsection (4) may, in addition to or without imposing a penalty on the offender —
assess the amount of any expenses needlessly incurred by the police or other emergency services as a result of the false alarm; and
order the offender to pay the amount so assessed to the Government or other statutory body by which or by whom the expenses were so incurred.
(6)
In this section, “alarm system” means an intruder alarm system of the type prescribed, being a device or series of devices, including hardwired systems and systems interconnected with a radio frequency method such as cellular or private radio signals, which emit or transmit a remote or local audible, visual or electronic signal indicating an alarm condition, but does not include an alarm installed in a vehicle or a personal alarm attached to the body of an individual.