KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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comment on PERS subscriber requests test signals be disabled / ISC meeting /Party Invite
November 10, 2025
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You're invited: K&K 2025 HOLIDAY PARTY WILL BE ON DECEMBER 4, 2025 6 PM Old Westbury, NY. RSVP only if coming with Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Diana Henriquez at 516 747 6700 x 328 or email dhenriquez@kirschenbaumesq.com. Space limited so be sure to RSVP if coming asap
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Private meetings at ISC EAST
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ISC is almost here; reserve your private meeting.
To arrange a private meeting with K&K and staff at ISC East on November 19 or 20 please contact Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com. We are planning half hour appointments between 10:30 and 4:30 on November 19 and 20. If you think you need more time let us know. We look forward to seeing you at ISC; meetings will be outside the hall at the food court area.
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comment on PERS subscriber requests test signals be disabled from article on Oct 23, 2025
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Ken
Regarding the post - PERS subscriber requests test signals be disabled. No disagreement on your advice about the process to discontinue the tests and to seek an overdue Disclaimer Notice.
Seems the customer is giving up on the system with the request to turn off the test signals. That doesn’t mean the installer should. To me it seems there is a professional and moral obligation to correct the known repeated false alarms and ensure the signals get thru or at least offer the options to fix it. There are other communications options available. The other issue is if the test signal doesn’t communicate correctly how does a real signal get thru. It seems unlikely that the “poor quality voip phone line garbles” only the test signals.
I would be interested in your view on the installers potential legal liability for failing to correct a recognized deficiency or at least advise the client of it and offer a remedy.
Brad Shipp
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another comment
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Ken:
Regarding the disable of the auto-test function, the dealer should consider:
IF THE TEST WILL NOT RELIABLY MAKE THE CONNECTION………….What makes the dealer believe an actual signal of a life-safety nature make that ‘trip’ to the Central Station.
I would not want to be in the Court’s ‘Well’ testifying………
Just my nickel, *(used to be my 2-cents, but with inflation)……….. OK, now for Joe’s bloviation……….
Years ago (probably decades) I was at the ISC show in New York. There was a meeting of the minds between a SBC (South Western Bell) technical representative and alarm dealers who were concerned about the very issue of calls being dropped during alarm data transmission and echo and other items since the BELL 103 standard had been forgotten and apparently no longer being implemented or followed. (*and…….yes I am aware of the FCC ruling of the sunsetting of the POTS lines the industry had depended upon with its 99.999% reliability factor).
The representative stated in no uncertain terms we as an industry should not be concerned since the digital communicators (dialers) would just hang up and re-dial. As I was just a littler further away from this arrogant individual than another dealer and it was going to take me about 2.5 seconds to climb across the table to begin choking him, THE OTHER DEALER began to climb across the HUGE conference table and HE began to explain to this individual that HE did not want to be in the Court’s ‘Well’ testifying in open court why the grandparent’s daughter had burned to death due to the delay in getting the fire trucks there………….as SECONDS COUNTED IN LIFE-SAFETY MATTERS!
You just cannot make this stuff up!
*please find the ‘timing issue’ in the attached JadeWire from my website’s newsletter:
FIRENET RADIO, JADE ALARM DISPATCHERS, WALKER TOWEL’S CRITICAL 30-SECONDS. On April 7th, , at 23:39 hours,
Jade Alarm Command Center Dispatcher Rhonda received a fire alarm signal from Walker Towel and Uniform that covered the soiled linen area’s Smoke Beam Sensor. The fire depart[1]mint dispatchers were immediately contacted and fire crews were on the way to the 132 year old company’s headquarters. Later, while Jade Alarm President Joe Pfefer and several Jade Alarm technicians were in the parking lot having temporarily effected alarm repairs, so the building alarm could be set, the Kansas City Missouri Fire Chief came up to them, turned to Walker Towel Owner, Hal Shapiro and said “Mr. Shapiro, in another 30-seconds I would have had to pull my fire crews off your roof and pulled away for safety’s sake. If not for the speed of the alarm system and Jade Alarm’s dispatchers getting us here as quickly as they did, we could not have saved your building as the sprinklers could not keep up with the fire.”
Jade Alarm’s radio network immediately responds and the alarm signal shows up on our Command Center’s Computer screens. Those 30-seconds, that older alarms require to communicate their signal would have, in the case of Walker Towel, would have been 30-seconds too long! Losing their headquarters to the fire would have been at the very least traumatic to the 132 year old family business and every employee’s job would have been at risk that day. It is that awesome responsibility each and every Jade Alarm employee understands and appreciates!!
Respectfully,
Joseph (Joe) Pfefer, President & Founder
Jade Alarm Co
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Response
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com
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