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COMMENTS ON SHOULD WE CUT OUT CENTRAL STATIONS FROM JULY 4, 2015 ARTICLE
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Ken,
    Not to mention any names, but there is a jurisdiction in our area monitoring alarms for their town. They have one phone line card and every alarm customer in their town is forced to go through their system. They pay with a tax revenue for the service. They also may use a private monitoring station. There are problems. By only having one line card, they often have delayed arrival of signals and when the private monitoring station calls with a signal they haven’t yet gotten, they spend time investigating why they didn’t get it as opposed to getting the signal dispatched to patrol cars or fire companies. Additionally, since they are a 911 center for their town, the receiver sounding may take a back seat to a live caller. Having been on-site to help them repair the receiver, I have heard the dispatchers at the center voicing their opposition to monitoring alarms in house. They hate dealing with the false alarms and have become jaded because of the falsing problem. Therefore, when an alarm transmits across the receiver, they admit to being slower to respond because they “know” it’s a false alarm.
anon
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Ken,
    Just a possible scenario derived from the comment by ANONYMOUS regarding delayed fire alarm dispatch
    Hmmmm hmmmm! Just what I'd want!
    As decreed by a local government employed fire marshal, who is mandated to following rules that he has no control over... I, .... as the owner of a  multimillion dollar company, would really want my fire alarm system reporting to an automated alarm processing computer (with no responsibility) to a central station run by the local government (with no responsibility) being dispatched by civil servant union employees (with no responsibility or likely any concern either {think Department of Motor Vehicle employees}).
    ALL ...who are going to keep their jobs no matter WHAT they do. 
    Yesireee that sounds like a winner to me!
Gene
Reliable Alarm
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Ken:
    The idea of taking monitoring away from professional central stations and/or remote stations is a dangerous one in my opinion. 
    In fact, I have referenced the criticality of professional central and remote station monitoring in my peer reviewed book,
    The Alarm Science Manual.  In addition, I have forensically examined so-called direct 911 communication centers and not surprisingly, most of them are very ill equipped to handle same. That being said, there is simply no comparison to the reliability which we generally receive from wholesale monitoring stations across the country, that have proven through appropriate listing by an NRTL, substantial financial investment, and state of the art technology and training, that they are far superior to the aforementioned. Finally, central stations who have achieved UL 2050 listing further amplifies the basis to keep monitoring in the hands of dedicated and properly trained and supervised professionals, instead of the government.
Jeffrey D. Zwirn, President
IDS Research and Development, Inc. 
www.alarmexpert.com
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Note:  You can get info on ordering Jeff's book on The Alarm Exchange in the Educational and Training Programs category.
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                                          Webinar Notice

 We will be presenting a series of 4 webinars.  These interactive webinars will be presented live and there will be time alloted to questions and answers.  Noted alarm/security/fire expert Jeffrey Zwirn will present these webinars.  There is no chargefor the webinars and I suggest you register as soon as we post the dates.  Might be good time to pick up Jeff's comprehensive Alarm Science Manual: click here to get the book All webinars will be from 12 noon to 1 PM

REGISTER TODAY FOR ALL THE WEBINARS [register for each one separately]: 

July 21: Forensic Alarm Expert’s Perspective on Alarm Company Liability: Case Study and Ways To Help Minimize Your Liability
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July 28: Connect to Existing System Installed by Others: What Are Your Duties? & Ambush, Panic and Holdup Systems-The Customers Lifeline to Safety and Security or Not?
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July 30: Residential Fire Alarm Systems-Life Safety or Fatal Flaws
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August 4: Central and Remote Station Monitoring Instructions- Are your instructions safe or foreseeably dangerous?
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