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comments
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Ken
    Kevin is absolutely correct in his assessment of the quality of MUNICIPAL MONITORING v PRIVATE SECTOR Central Stations.
    Having retired as an executive manager of a municipal police department that actively monitored alarms for the fire department and local residents who chose to avail themselves of the service I can speak with direct knowledge about municipal monitoring.
    PSAPs or Public Safety Answering Points (Police dispatch centers) are staffed by a dedicated group of professionals who pride themselves on their skills and ability in dispatching EMS and Police requests for service. There is no question that they do this quite well, as evidenced by the number of 911 stories of a dispatcher who calms a hysterical mother, or guides a young child  on the telephone on assisting a disabled parent..This is what they see their job as. In the cases of alarm monitoring I have seen dispatcher give curt instructions to an alarm company, refer calls to another location and in general do not see alarm monitoring as their mission.
    A lot of Public Safety Dispatchers see alarm dispatching as a nuisance that they must put up with. Dispatchers (again I am not saying ALL) see alarm companies getting rich on their labor.
1- Will the dispatchers be taking a professional dispatch course in alarm dispatch? (They do for EMS)
2-Will dispatchers have the time to PROPERLY apply the principals of Enhanced Call Verification?
3-Can or will dispatchers be able to answer service questions or refer the caller to a service outlet by TRANSFER or just give them the number? ((Or worse say CALL YOUR ALARM COMPANY.
4-Will the dispatchers calmly, thoroughly and cordially interpret signals on NEW Installs and work with technicians as they send ALL SIGNALS as required by NFPA 72?  Or are they TOO BUSY? Will installs go only HALF TESTED? or not at all?
    If the municipalities are looking to FINE the end user for every violation WHAT ABOUT ECV?  SIAC has worked very hard to help trim the number of unnecessary dispatches by verifying as false 75% of the alarms transmitted to them.  Will the municipal dispatchers try to help solve the problem or just send bills?
    Alarm calls/dispatches will EXPLODE on implementation of municipal monitoring.
    Will the PSAP be UL Listed? Will UL actually inspect? Will the local AHJ  wink and nod and not insist on the PSAP measuring up?
    This issue will not go away but only get bigger. Lets hope nobody gets hurt.
Joel Kent
CASIA Education Chair
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Ken
    When I entered this industry , in 1969 , P D and F D monitoring was common ,
although residential market penetration was small . Enter digital transmission and
wholesale monitoring . One of benefits stressed to the subscriber  was that one
entity was no longer doing BOTH monitoring and dispatching . The result was more
accountability .
Jim Wooster Sr
Alarm Financial Services