In an increasingly competitive market, consumers have many options when it comes to choosing a security and life safety provider. Making your company standout amongst the rest is a necessity for success, and one national award will give you the tools. The Police Dispatch Quality (PDQ) Award highlights one company that demonstrates excellence in customer protection and it’s easy to apply. “Atronic Alarms was very excited to be recognized by the PDQ Award for our dedication to reducing false alarms,” said Perry Atha, President and Developer of Atronic Alarms, last year’s winner. “We have always made false alarm prevention a priority and we were able to implement the PDQ Award into our marketing initiatives to further validate this commitment to our current and potential clients, as well our team members.” “We were extremely pleased that the efforts at ADS to work closely with our customers and local law enforcement officials was nationally acknowledged and rewarded through the PDQ Award,” said Robert A. Bonifas, ADS President and CEO. ADS won the PDQ the year before last. “Through this recognition, our clients and local officials were able to clearly see the pledge to safety that we pride ourselves on.” Created by the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) and the False Alarm Reduction Association (FARA), and co-sponsored by Security Sales & Integration Magazine and Honeywell Security, the 5th Annual PDQ Award will recognize one North American security company that best demonstrates a dedicated and cooperative effort to reduce unnecessary alarm dispatches. In conjunction with national and local marketing campaigns to promote the winning company, award organizers will also provide the winner with hotel and airfare accommodations to attend the award ceremony at the 2010 Electronic Security Expo where the presentation will be made in front of hundreds of industry professionals. “The PDQ Award is a great way to highlight your company from many different standpoints,” said Stan Martin, Executive Director of SIAC. ”We are firmly devoted to the principles behind the PDQ Award and will do all that we can to assist the winning company with getting the message out about their extraordinary efforts. We have simplified the nomination application and look forward to finding out who will be the next PDQ Award winner.” To participate in the 5th Annual PDQ Award, monitoring and/or installing alarm dealers in the U.S. and Canada may download an official application at www.siacinc.org. Once completed, simply return the application to SIAC by mail, postmarked by Feb. 28, 2010. Previous winners of the PDQ Award include Atronic Alarms, Alarm Detection Systems Inc., Broadview Security, and Vector Security.
Gains strategic partner in fight against non-response.
Stan Martin, executive director for the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC), and Glen Mowery, SIAC’s law enforcement liaison, recently spoke to members of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) about what SIAC and the industry is doing to reduce alarm dispatches.
“It was apparent that more than 90 percent of those attending had no idea how much progress we have made as an industry and had never seen any positive statistics on reductions,” Stan said. “The session generated quite a bit of positive energy.”
The duo educated the group on SIAC’s training initiatives, ordinances, alarm management committees, Enhanced Call Verification and CP-01 alarm panel standards. After the session, Bill Hobgood, one of the primary coordinators on the new CSAA/911 communications standard, invited Stan to join him as he travels around the country doing promotional/educational sessions on the new standard.
Based on Stan and Glen’s presentation, Donny Jackson of Urgent Communications Magazine has published an article that includes statistics and other information about false dispatches. Read the article here.
This new relationship will go a long way in helping SIAC, the members of NBFAA and the industry, gain nationwide support for Enhanced Call Verification and CP-01 in municipalities looking to combat false dispatches.
“Thanks to the new enforcement of registration and Enhanced Call Verification (ECV), the false alarm stats have dropped significantly” reports Lt. Glenn Winkey who leads the False Alarm Reduction Unit of the Spokane, Wash. Police Department. The enforcement efforts began April 2 and as a result, alarm calls during the first eight weeks under the enforcement program have netted an additional 41 percent decrease over the same period a year ago.
“Prior to 2005, we were going to more than 600 alarm calls per month,” stated Lt. Winkey.
At the current rate, by fully enforcing ECV and registration, Winkey predicts, the city could end up dropping alarms to less than 1,000 for the year. If that trend holds, Spokane will have experienced an 85 percent reduction in alarm responses since adopting their ordinance in 2006.
Olympia, Washington created and adopted the same ordinance in 2004 and is also currently enjoying an 84 percent reduction in police dispatches. Olympia has a population of 44,000 and Spokane, the second largest city in the state, is at 201,000. So, what do these two widely diverse cities attribute their nation leading success in false alarm management? A good program, developed in concert with the local alarm industry, thorough and consistent management and enforcement by the jurisdiction, and a supportive and engaged alarm industry. Both ordinances include all of the industry recommended “best practices,” the key elements of which are ECV, which requires the monitoring company to make a minimum of two verification calls prior to notifying the police; Alarm Site Registration, which follows a No Registration, No Response policy; and the advanced alarm control panel standard (CP-01) for all new panel installations.
The State of Washington now has seven jurisdictions following the industry’s best practices that have achieved reductions in unnecessary alarm dispatches of more than 60 percent four of which have reductions in excess of 70 percent
