Arizona Alarm Companies Clash Over Technician Background Checks
The Arizona Alarm Dealers Association and the Arizona Alarm Association are at odds on whether alarm technicians should undergo background checks.
Representatives of the Arizona Alarm Dealers Association (AADA) believe alarm technicians do not need to undergo background checks, while Arizona Alarm Association (AzAA) agents say it is necessary for installing security contractors to be checked.
PHOENIX – Should security alarm installers in be required to undergo a background check? The issue is the center of a debate among security alarm companies in Arizona.
Currently, installing alarm technicians licensed by the Arizona Board of Technical Registration (BTR) are required to submit to FBI background checks. However, a new bill could possibly remove the background check and fingerprint requirement, ABC 15 reports.
If approved, House Bill 2504 would put all alarm company licensing under the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC), which already regulates security alarm installation companies that were already licensed with them before the BTR regulations took effect.
The ROC does not require alarm technicians to undergo background checks.
Tucson Alarm Company Owner Roger Score supports the bill, stating that there is no need for alarm technicians to be checked. Rather, he says the BTR licenses and FBI checks are over-regulation and adds an extra burden to the security alarm industry.
Score, who is also president of the Arizona Alarm Dealers Association, which represents the smaller alarm businesses in Arizona, says the legislation helps protect the mom-and-pop alarm businesses that are trying to survive, ABC 15 reports.
RELATED: Competing Ariz. Alarm Associations Quarrel Over Licensing Rules
The ROC requires all applicants to have testing, training, insurance and bonds to receive licensing. Only alarm company business owners are required to undergo background checks.
The Arizona Alarm Association (AzAA), on the other hand, believes that it is necessary for alarm technicians to undergo background checks.
Bonds Alarm Company’s Tom Eggebrecht, who is treasurer of the AzAA, says he wants his employees to be checked so he knows exactly what type of person he is sending out in the field.
“Imagine for a second that somebody was released from prison yesterday came into your house under the pretense that they were an employee of mine and jewelry is missing,” he told ABC 15.”Somebody is going to be sued for that process.”
Still, Score believes the checks are unnecessary, stating that there has never been a case reported in the state in more than 20 years of an alarm technician victimizing consumers.
What do you think? Should alarm technicians undergo background check? Leave your comments below!
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