ORLANDO, Fla.—The proposal of an industry group alliance for alarm management and a state association-hosted symposium on the false alarm issue at ISC East made it crystal clear that participation and action is necessary by all security professionals.
On the administrative side, a family tree-like alliance among all organizations and associations involved with the false alarm issue was proposed by the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) at the Security Industry Association’s (SIA) Alarm Management Committee (formerly known as now the False Alarm Reduction Committee) meeting. The alliance, to be called the Coordinated Alarm Reduction Effort (CARE) Council, would be comprised of nine groups and associations and would hold each party accountable to help one another with false alarms across the country. At this point, however, it is still considered a proposal.
“If we don’t do something, then we’ll become the no-response association,” says Merlin Guilbeau, NBFAA executive director, who proposed the idea to committee members. He adds that the next step in fleshing out this proposal is to find the money to fund the project.
Committee member Bill Moody supports the concept and says it can stimulate a broader level of support throughout the industry. At the same time, he also points out how dismal the industry’s public relations has been in helping educate end users about their alarms so far. “There are a number of people within the industry that have been involved in great detail [to help prevent false alarms] and have tried much and have failed,” he said.
The Target Zero symposium conducted by the Alarm Association of Florida (AAF) analyzed the root cause of false alarms and ways to prevent the growing interest in verified response by police departments. Ten panel members representing security dealers, manufacturers and law enforcement officials cited the denial of false alarms on the end-user side, lack of quality installer training and the various features of alarm keypads as some of the reasons for false alarms, many of which still pose a challenge for the industry. Poor administration within police departments was also cited by those involved in law enforcement.
The symposium’s ultimate goal, however, was not to point fingers but to give a greater sense of urgency to security dealers to be more proactive. They were urged to take caution when purchasing accounts that may not have been maintained well, adopt the practice of at least one-call verification, and to work with the local police department in areas where false alarms are still not a major concern.
“We do have a problem,” says Cecil Hogan, NBFAA president, who was one of the panel members. “So many of us have slid and now everybody in this room is probably doing their job, but there are still others who aren’t doing what they should.”
