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Comment on verified response impacting crime rate 

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Ken

    Several weeks ago one of this forums readers asked an important question following the comments by Bart Didden related to VR/Verified Response in Salt Lake City. It has remained unanswered. The reader asked (paraphrased) “….do burglaries or other crimes increase in cities that practice “no response”…” 

    First, formalized VR is not a “no response” program as noted by Bart.  That was a personal opinion.  Verified Response is formally putting the private monitoring firms in the same position as all other local citizens. No more or no less, i.e.… you witness a 911 type emergency and you will get high priority response.

    The short answer seems to be “NO”… burglary or other crimes do not increase as a direct or indirect result of VR.      We now have over 12 years of VR documentation that applies to several million monitored customers.  Note, formalized VR is often practiced in large cities, so a small number of VR cities cover lots of monitored customers, equivalent to hundreds of small cities.   Examples of large VR cities include Salt Lake City, Las Vegas/Henderson NV, Milwaukee, Detroit, San Jose CA, Fremont CA. 

    As you would expect, VR prompted lots of research and public Reports by lots of professional groups, including universities; local, state, international police associations (including IACP); local and state sheriffs associations; insurance companies.  All have returned the same basic answer...  “NO”… no evidence that burglary or other crimes are impacted as a direct or indirect result of VR.

Lee Jones

Support Services Group

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Response

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    I thought Verified Response had more to do with false alarm reduction than reducing the crime rate.  ECV - enhanced call verification - I suspect does result in less false alarms - sure - because it results in less police response.  I wonder if the actual alarms dispatched, even where there is ECV, has less false alarms compared to actual alarms rather than simply a reduction in number of responses.  

    Here's what I mean.  Say there are 1000 alarms in a month.  No ECV - well the cops tell us that 990 plus alarms are false alarms.  [pardon me if my stats are off].  Put in place ECV and now only 100 alarms are dispatched.  What percent of those are still false alarms?  99?  I don't know.

    I've seen stats that Videofied [which is certainly a form of alarm verification because it offers video verification] helps catch criminals.  I suppose that reduces crime. 

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liability for employee theft

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Ken,

    Quick question. Do the standard alarm contracts protect the alarm dealer if one of his technicians

is a dishonest employee and steals from the customer during the time that he is in the master bedroom

closet installing the system? Perhaps the limitation of Liability clauses will take affect?

Thanks,

Tom

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Answer

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    Not likely that the contract will provide much protection, though there is requirement for sub to carry insurance.  Employers are not generally strictly liable for employee theft, but there are a number of legal theories that will impose employer liability.  Depends on circumstances.

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licensed in one state and working in another - is there waiver for govt work

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Ken,

I am currently working as a sub in the state where I am licensed. It has been proposed to me to possibly work nationally. My question is if there is any way that a company doing government work is insulated from jurisdictional requirements such as licensing in a particular state they may be working, thus allowing me to continue to work on projects in anywhere USA without having to comply with specific low voltage licensing requirements. It seems as though permits and such are not part of

any project i have been involved so far.

Anon

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Response

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Not that I know of.  You could work without the license and wait to get caught.