ADT Domestic Violence Prevention Program Awarded by U.S DOJ

BOCA RATON, Fla.

April 23, 2007 SSI Staff

ADT Security Services has received the 2007 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) Award for its ADT AWARE® program. The company has worked to assist domestic violence victims through AWARE (Abused Women’s Active Response Emergency) since 1992. The program is credited with helping save 31 lives.

ADT received the Allied Professional Award, given by the Office of Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice and presented by the U.S. Attorney General. The NCVRW Award recognizes individuals from a specific discipline outside the victim assistance field for their service to victims and contribution to the crime victim’s arena.

“ADT is honored to be chosen as a recipient of this prestigious award. It is our hope that this will illuminate the serious issues victims face on a daily basis, and possibly help lower the incidents of domestic violence,” says John Koch, president, ADT Security Services.

For 15 years, the AWARE Program has provided a tool for communities in their efforts to prevent and prosecute domestic violence cases. At a local level, ADT works with law enforcement and social service agencies to administer the program. The local community agencies assess the needs of potential participants assuring they meet the following three basic criteria: the victim must be in imminent danger of attack, have a restraining order or other active order of protection against the abuser, and must be willing to prosecute and testify against the batterer in court if the batterer is apprehended through the use of the ADT system.

After those who meet the criteria are placed in the program, ADT installs and monitors, at no charge, security systems in each of their homes and provides them with emergency necklace pendants for as long as the need exists. The pendants can send a silent alarm, when activated, to a customer-monitoring center.

If a person involved in the program feels in imminent danger of attack, he or she presses either the pendant or the emergency button on the security system panel mounted in his or her home. Operators can then alert the appropriate law enforcement agency that an AWARE call has been received. Officers will then be dispatched to the victim’s residence on a priority basis.

Although the AWARE Program is national in scope, ADT was specifically honored for its work in West Virginia and was nominated by Charles T. Miller, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of West Virginia. Recently, a West Virginian woman was rescued from her abuser through the AWARE Program. The rescued victim had a court-issued protective order and was in the process of divorcing her husband. The victim used her emergency necklace pendant to summon law enforcement after being threatened at knifepoint by her spouse who was out of prison on a criminal bond for previously attempting to strangle her.

The AWARE Program is active in 177 U.S. communities and, through its sister program, DVERS (Domestic Violence Emergency Response System) the program is offered in 41 locations in Canada.

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