Alarm industry group helps law enforcement manage false alarms

May 1, 1999 12:00 PM, George Partington

In 1995, the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a challenge to the alarm industry: Either correct the false alarm problem or face the possibility of non-response.Since then, the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation (AIREF) has been working to answer law enforcement's false alarm concerns. When the group met at the Sands Expo Center March 11 during the ISC West trade show in Las Vegas, Nev., members discussed the danger of allowing acceptance of a non-response policy and hashed out further plans to solve false alarm problems.

"Through dialogue with law enforcement, industry leadership convinced them we could make alarms work, so they gave us an opportunity to show them with test cases," says Bob Ohm, AIREF chairman and Eastern region vice president for Westec Home Security, Los Angeles. The testing began with a Model Cities program in 1996 and evolved into a Model States program in 1997. Model States include Washington, California, Illinois and Florida. A goal of the program is to measure the false alarm rate, because, "What gets measured, gets managed," Ohm says.

Now, AIREF's North American False Dispatch Reduction Plan calls for the group to communicate lessons learned from the Model States program to the law enforcement community nationwide. The program ends with a final report this month. Four regional managers are leading the effort, which includes about 40 summit meetings with law enforcement. Meetings are scheduled for New Orleans on April 29, New Haven, Conn., on May 11 and Dallas on May 13.AIREF will inform law enforcement of tools it is offering, including a model ordinance and software for management of false alarm data. The software automatically flags a customer who has reached a service suspension level of eight false alarms. In addition, says Ohm, "We encourage registration, enforcement of the alarm ordinance, and sanctions against abusers." Other points AIREF makes include:- To illustrate the severity of the false alarm problem, it is often cited that 98 percent of alarms are false alarms, says Ohm. However, the figure does not take into account the total number of alarms. "If you do, you get the number of dispatches per system per year," he says. "Right now the average is one dispatch per system per year. The goal is for the average to be 1/2 dispatch per system per year."- Another statistic says that 15 percent of police officer patrol time is spent responding to false alarms. But Ohm points out that even some policemen say this is not a bad thing because it gets patrolmen in neighborhoods where they should be.- Eighty percent of the false dispatches are caused by 20 percent of the people, asserts Ohm. "We see this consistently demonstrated in communities," he says. "If you attack that 20 percent you will reduce your false dispatches by 80 percent." - User training should be emphasized.

In addition, AIREF is working with equipment suppliers to develop a control panel standard and a standard process for operating keypads.Based in Bethesda, Md., the group was formed in 1992 to provide a strategic liaison with police departments and city officials for false alarm reduction. Members come from the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, the Canadian Alarm and Security Association, the Central Station Alarm Associations and the Security Industry Association.

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