Attorney General of Arkansas — Opinion
STEVE CLARK, Attorney General
Honorable Larry Goodwin State Representative P. O. Box 65 Cave City, Arkansas 72521
Dear Representative Goodwin:
You have requested an Attorney General’s opinion on the following issue:
A constituent of mine is interested in going into the emergency alarm business. His product would be attached to a phone and when a designated number is dialed, a phone will ring and the message played. This prerecorded message may be to the police, fire or for emergency medical assistance.
Section D of Act 1004 of 1985 states that, “no person shall program an automatic dialing device to call any emergency health service or any state, city or county agency.” Would dialing a number which would initiate a prerecorded message to be played to the dialed number be a violation of this act? Secondly, would it be legal under Act 1004 to initiate 911 emergency numbers?
Your questions are in reference to the Alarm Systems Licensing Act, codified as Ark. Stat. Ann. 71-5701 et seq. (Supp. 1985). Specifically, you refer to Section [12]D of Act 1004 of 1985 which is codified as Ark. Stat. Ann. 71-5712(D) (Supp. 1985) and which provides as follows:
No person shall program an automatic dialing device to call any law enforcement agency, fire department, emergency health service or any State, city or county agency.
Your first question asks whether dialing a number which would initiate a prerecorded message to be played to the dialed number would be a violation of this act. I assume from what you say that the prerecorded message would be a request for emergency assistance by a person disabled to the extent that he or she could not personally request such assistance. Ark. Stat. Ann. 71-5712(D) prohibits any person from programing an automatic dialing device to call for emergency assistance. The facts that you outline suggest that the call would be initiated by a person and not by an automatic dialing device. Thus, it is my opinion that 71-5712(D) would not prohibit the type of device you describe.
While it is my opinion that the statute does not expressly prohibit the type of device you describe, it appears that this type of activity comes very close to that which the statute is aimed at prohibiting. It would be preferable to have the statute expressly identify the type activity that is permitted when prerecorded messages are involved n summoning emergency assistance.
Your second question asks whether it would be legal under Act 1004 (Ark. Stat. Ann. 71-5701 et seq. (Supp. 1985) to initiate 911 emergency numbers. It appears that you are asking if it would be illegal for a person to dial a 911 emergency number and have a prerecorded message played in which emergency assistance was requested. Nothing in the Act would appear to make any distinction between 911 emergency numbers and other numbers for emergency services. Therefore, as before, it is my opinion that Act 1004 does not expressly prohibit the initiation of 911 emergency numbers in the manner you describe.
This opinion which I hereby approve was prepared by Assistant Attorney General Jack Gillean.