§ 681-1. Legislative intent.

A. 

This Legislature hereby finds and determines that certain proprietary ambulance companies and/or advanced life-support first-responder services monitor, intercept or otherwise receive the alarm transmissions of law enforcement agencies, fire service agencies, other ambulance services or advanced life-support first-responder services, and that such proprietary ambulance companies use information contained in such alarm transmissions for the purposes of dispatching resources to, or responding to, such alarms without a written mutual-aid agreement authorizing such responses.

B. 

This Legislature further finds and determines that such dual, uncoordinated and unnecessary responses on the part of such proprietary ambulance companies constitute an unsafe practice.

C. 

This Legislature also finds that such unsafe and uncoordinated responses on the part of such proprietary ambulance companies interfere with the emergency medical services provided by volunteer fire departments and volunteer ambulance companies which provide such services as a municipal entity or pursuant to a written agreement with local government.

D. 

This Legislature also finds and determines that the behavior of such proprietary ambulance companies and their employees in undertaking such responses has a deleterious effect upon the volunteer providers, contributes to high stress and low morale in the volunteer service and increases the cost of providing such services to local taxpayers and third-party insurers.

E. 

Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to stop the abuses and unsafe practices caused by the uncoordinated and unnecessary response of these proprietary ambulance companies and to stop such proprietary companies from responding to alarms that they have monitored, intercepted or otherwise received and for which no written mutual-aid agreements exist.