AICC Announces the Alarm Monitoring Licensing and
Reciprocity Act of 2005

The Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) has announced that it has completed work and gained an industry consensus on a Bill to be submitted in the early days of the 109th Congress. To be known as the Alarm Monitoring Licensing and Reciprocity Act of 2005, this Bill has been in development for several years to ensure that all segments of the alarm industry had significant input into its creation.

Representatives of NBFAA and CSAA with the finished Bill. (l.-r): Merlin Guilbeau, NBFAA; Bill Signer, Navigant Consulting; Scot Colby, NBFAA; Lou Fiore, CSAA & AICC; Richard Sampson, CSAA; and Steve Doyle, CSAA

The main purposes of the Bill are to protect the safety interests of alarm monitoring customers and increase efficiencies and reduce costs by eliminating duplicative efforts by state regulating agencies and alarm monitoring organizations conducting business in numerous states. Further, the Bill is designed to establish a minimum reciprocity and regulation standard for alarm companies that may be adopted by states. “The alarm monitoring industry has long been plagued by repetitive fingerprinting and other licensing provisions in various states which imposes unnecessary expenditures of time, money and personnel resources on these companies,” said Lou Fiore, Chairman of the AICC.

Fiore also added that “this also increases the cost to the customer ultimately, and while this issue may not affect all in the alarm monitoring industry, a great many companies are severely impacted when they do business in numerous states. This Bill is meant to address that issue”.

According to CSAA’s Executive Vice President, Steve Doyle, “The language of this Bill states that alarm monitoring organizations licensed or registered in a state that has adopted the Minimum Licensing Standard (contained in this Act) may provide such service in any other state or political jurisdiction without complying with additional requirements or restrictions. This is a major step forward for our industry as many companies have to employ full time people just to keep track of individual state licensing requirements”.

"NBFAA is committed to this Bill because of the benefits to the industry and the public," said Scot Colby, President of the National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA). "As we look to the future, we believe that reciprocity of  licensing for security installations is the logical next step for the industry to bring before Congress."

"SIA fully supports the enactment of this legislation as it works to promote the appropriate balance of state regulation and common sense," said Richard Chace, Executive Director and CEO of the Security Industry Association (SIA), a member of the AICC. "This legislation is a milestone for our industry as it works to encourage economic growth while recognizing the need to have appropriate and viable regulations to help foster professionalism in the security industry," added Chace.

AICC representatives have been in contact with various members of the House of Representatives and the Senate and have found a very favorable reception among members of Congress who are familiar with the issue. The AICC will now move forward to secure sponsors for the Bill.

To view the full text of the Bill, please click here.

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The AICC and the AICC-Political Action Committee is composed of the Central Station Alarm Association, the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, the Security Industry Association, Ademco, Vector Security, the Security Network of America and other interested parties in the alarm industry.

The AICC provides coordination in a variety of areas between the alarm industry and the FCC, other regulatory agencies and members of Congress as well as a watchdog for communications issues affecting the industry.