Old-fashioned telephones were detectable from the phone company's end, because they had a standard resistance of 600 ohms (I think).
Not sure about modern telephones. Is it dedicated to your system, or is it hooked up to the phone company? The phone company sends -60V (negative polarity) through its line.
The ring signal is about 90 VAC. So you might be able to detect a phone by sending low voltage AC (so that you don't make it ring), and measuring how much current goes through.