Bill Text: VA HB1404 | 2017 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Fire alarms; maliciously activating, penalty.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)
Status: (Passed) 2017-02-20 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0098) [HB1404 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2017-HB1404-Chaptered.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§15.2-1716.1 and 18.2-212 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
§15.2-1716.1. Reimbursement of expenses incurred in responding to terrorism hoax incident, bomb threat, or malicious activation of fire alarm.
Any locality may provide by ordinance that any person who is
convicted of a violation of subsection B or C of §18.2-46.6 or of,
a felony violation of §18.2-83 or 18.2-84, or a violation of §18.2-212,
when his violation of such section is the proximate cause of any incident
resulting in an appropriate emergency response, shall be liable at the time of
sentencing or in a separate civil action to the locality or to any volunteer
emergency medical services agency, or both, which may provide such emergency
response for the reasonable expense thereof, in an amount not to exceed
$1,000 $2,500 in the aggregate for a particular incident occurring
in such locality. In determining the "reasonable expense," a locality
may bill a flat fee of $250 or a minute-by-minute accounting of the actual
costs incurred. As used in this section, "appropriate emergency
response" includes all costs of providing law-enforcement, firefighting,
and emergency medical services. The provisions of this section shall not
preempt or limit any remedy available to the Commonwealth, to the locality, or
to any volunteer emergency medical services agency to recover the reasonable
expenses of an emergency response to an incident not involving a terroristic
hoax or an act undertaken in violation of §18.2-83 or, 18.2-84,
or 18.2-212 as set forth herein.
§18.2-212. Calling or summoning emergency medical services vehicle or firefighting apparatus without just cause; maliciously activating fire alarms; venue.
A. Any person who without just cause therefor calls or
summons, by telephone or otherwise, any emergency medical services vehicle or
firefighting apparatus, or any person who maliciously activates a manual or
automatic fire alarm in any building used for public assembly or for other
public use, including, but not limited to, schools, theaters, stores, office
buildings, shopping centers and malls, coliseums, and arenas, regardless of
whether an emergency medical services vehicle or fire apparatus responds or
not, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
B. A violation of this section may be prosecuted either in the jurisdiction from which the call or summons was made or in the jurisdiction where the call or summons was received.
