The new president of electronic security provider Sonitrol Corp. spoke with Security Sales & Integration about the responsibilities of his new position and offered criticism of alarm industry efforts against verified response. Alex Gellman was named on Nov. 9 to fill the position of president that had been vacant since Sonitrol broke off from Tyco in April 2004.
Gellman, who had been Sonitrol’s COO since 2004, says his new role will expand his duties over the day-to-day oversight of the company, with Chairman and CEO Kevin Dowd concentrating more on strategic initiatives for the company.
“It’s not a major change in the sense that it’s an expansion of my responsibilities and a little bit of a shift from our CEO to me,” Gellman says. “I like challenges. There is a great opportunity here.”
Sonitrol has long called itself a specialist in verified electronic security, selling and installing an audio verification system for alarms long before verified response entered the industry’s vocabulary. Gellman says the industry’s resistance to verified response comes across as a lack of gratitude to law enforcement.
“What I look at it is the alarm industry has had the benefit of a free resource: police response. The industry has not had to pay for it so, not surprisingly, little has been done to minimize the use of that resource,” Gellman says. “The alarm industry has fallen down on the job and it’s coming to roost.”
Gellman especially takes exception to efforts in Dallas to keep the city from instituting verified response.
“In Dallas, the alarm industry has been vicious and I don’t think that’s healthy for the security business,” Gellman says. “We’re in the security business and we’re at odds with law enforcement and that’s going to be a challenge.”
Gellman says Sonitrol will continue to promote its audio verification alarm systems while also doing more to incorporate video verification. He says he welcomes more competitors into the field of alarm verification, but says audio verification has a leg up on video verification alone.
“The ultimate security is audio and video together,” he says. “I can operate my computer while I listen to music, but I cannot operate my computer while I watch TV.”
