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Well the municipality of Marlboro, NJ is officially in the alarm monitoring business. No, it doesn't have to get any license, and it didn't. No doubt it won't have to answer to the licensing agency, the state attorney general's office or the local consumer affairs department. It is making the residents of its township who want the service sign a contract. It's a one year contract and coincides with the alarm permit that is required in addition to the contract. Cost to do business with the police department? Permit fee is $25 and monitoring charge is $270 for the year, paid in advance. Doesn't appear to have any cancellation provision or refund provision. Cops can terminate monitoring service if they determine that the alarm system is being operated by the owner "in a manner that is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the general public, or in a manner causing an unnecessary diversion or limited police resources..."
The owner is required to indemnify the Township and hold it harmless for any damages "arising out of the issuance of the Digital Alarm Console Permit and the connection of the Alarm System to the Digital Alarm Console."
The contract provides that the cops don't have to inspect or maintain any alarm system. The cops can require the owner to have the alarm inspected by "an alarm business that will provide a certification that the defect or malfunction has been corrected." If it turns out that the owner is not using the alarm system correctly the cops can require that the owner get trained in the use of the alarm system by an alarm company. Failure to comply - monitoring is disconnected.
What then does the Police Department have to do? It must have some obligation or duty !! Well not according to the contract. Not only do the police not have to inspect or maintain any alarm, the final provision in the contract makes it crystal clear:
"(14) The issuance of this Digital Alarm Console Permit and Agreement shall not create any duty or obligation of the Division or Township of Marlboro to the Owner or authorized users of the Alarm System."
It will be interesting to see how the township handles the claims for failure of alarm response. Central stations should also keep tabs on this municipality to make sure that alarms monitored by the town are not given priority over calls monitored by private central stations. Those figures and statistics should be available under the Freedom Of Information Act disclosure requirements and the town may want to keep that data handy.
Anyway, on another note, here is an email from CA about a local police department that prefers to work with the alarm industry instead of competing against it and causing hard times to get worse for the local alarm companies. O, by the way, I hope the local alarm companies in Marlboro let their subscribers who elect to get monitored by the local cops know that "inspection", service and "training" charges, not to mention the "certifications", are paid in advance and at a premium.
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Hi Ken,
In response to recent postings on Comments on public vs: private response / false alarm / police - February 2 & 5, 2010, here is an example last week of our great success working together on the shared objective of enhancing public safety. The relationship with the San Marino police chief began in 2003 when the chief’s daughter received California Alarm Association’s Youth Scholarship award through our regional Orange County Alarm Association.
Jon Sargent, Past President
California Alarm Association
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From: John Schaefer
To: Sharon Elder
Subject: Worth Noting
Sharon:
Last Wednesday there was a residential burglary here in San Marino where the suspect unknowingly walked into a bedroom where a teenage resident was present. The resident was also unaware the suspect was in the house. There was a small altercation between the suspect and the resident and during this the suspect produced a gun.
As you might imagine this type of a crime generated a great deal of concern in our typically quiet community.
The following day we had an additional burglary with a M.O. identical to the previous burglary, however, in this case the home was unoccupied. Fortunately there was an alarm on this second home and when the suspect smashed the rear window the alarm activated. The alarm monitoring station called the house, got no response and then called the daughter of the residence. The daughter told the dispatcher not to notify the police as it was most likely her parents. She then drove over to the home to check it out.
Fortunately the suspect fled prior to her arrival. You can imagine how this might have turned out if she had walked in on a the armed burglar.
In an effort to mount the most appropriate response we contacted the four major alarm vendors here in San Marino, Diversified Alarm Service, San Marino Security Systems, SDS Security and POST Alarms and asked them if for the next couple weeks, or until this suspect was arrested, we could modify our alarm response so that SMPD could receive the first call and then respond even if ECV indicated the alarm did not merit a police response. We wanted this because we were concerned that our suspect might force someone to give a false Code 4. We also agreed that during this period we will not deem or charge any alarms as false alarms. Within the hour all four companies and their monitoring stations were on board, and so far it is working great.
When this was all settled I could not help but reflect on how fortunate we were to have this type of relationship with our alarm companies and how beneficial this was to our community.
Then, if this was not enough, today we are working a pedestrian / crosswalk safety program on Huntington Drive right in front of San Marino Security System’s new office. As we prepared for this I spoke with Mr. Phil Raacke and told him what we were doing. He in turn, of his own volition set up a four camera video monitoring system to supplement the single camera on a tripod we use. Not only did his network provide better, clearer coverage, but he set it up so it could be monitored over the internet. So this morning, when an irate citizen calls the City Manager and complains that the cops must have something better to do, I go into the City Manager’s office, pull up San Marino Security System’s temporary video site and show him what is going on. Complaint dismissed!
Two elements of Community Oriented Policing are PROACTIVE and PARTNERSHIPS. I feel so very fortunate that the City of San Marino, in a large part due to partnerships you have helped develop, has a relationship with our alarm vendors that allows us to proactively work together to make San Marino the very unique and safe community it is.
Thank you.
John T. Schaefer
Chief of Police