West New York, NJ Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

Chapter 142, adopted by the Board of Commissioners as Ord. No. 1449 and effective January 1, 1981, is the Town's burglary prevention code. Section 142-1 covers every existing and future building used for business when it is unattended, and all residential buildings except one- and two-family dwellings at all times. Buildings used for public assembly, and buildings whose exit doors need panic hardware locks, are exempt from the exterior door rules in § 142-12.

For commercial exterior doors, § 142-8 requires single swinging doors to carry either a heavy-duty lock with interlocking vertical bolts and striker or a one-inch dead bolt. Pairs of swinging doors are secured at the top and bottom of one leaf with vertical bolts and at the center with that same lock type. Glass door panels that are not burglary-resistant must be replaced with rated glazing, or covered by steel bars of at least one-half-inch diameter spaced not more than four inches apart, or by a grille of not more than two-inch mesh. Under § 142-8H every bolt must embed at least 1/2 inch in its receptacle, every locking device must offer at least 6,000 possible combinations, and a locking device cannot be defeated by removing its mounting screws.

Residential rules sit in § 142-12. They are recommendations only for owner-occupied two-family structures and mandatory for all other residential dwellings. Exterior entrance doors take the § 142-8A lock, and each apartment entrance door needs a lock that opens from the inside without a key plus a chain door guard. In structures of six or more units, a door entering a common corridor must be self-closing and self-locking and openable from the corridor without a key, and each apartment door needs a visitor observation port.

Enforcement belongs to the Division of Code Enforcement, the Police Department and the Fire Department under § 142-2. Section 142-4 calls for every covered building to be inspected at least once a year, with a written notice of deficiencies that sets a correction deadline, followed by reinspection.