SIAC Responds to Verified Response Survey

A new independent study of 20 police departments in the U.S. and Canada that have used Verified Response for more than a year, commissioned by Sonitrol Corporation, a provider of verified electronic security solutions, poses that the surveyed police departments reduced their dispatch rate by an average of 72%, while experiencing decreasing burglary rates.

The Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) quickly responded indicating that Verified Response is an outdated concept rejected by the vast majority of the law enforcement community (fewer than 30 of the nation’s 18,000 police departments use some form of it.) because it does nothing to reduce crime; it is universally unpopular with alarm users; and there are better, more effective ways to resolve alarm issues.

SIAC recommends the use of Enhanced Call Verification (ECV), by which alarm company dispatchers use multiple phone calls to weed out unnecessary dispatches. Industry studies have shown that ECV has cut dispatches by up to 64%.

CSAA promotes the use of Enhanced Call Verification. In fact, CSAA’s Standard Committee developed the “Alarm Verification and Notification Procedures,” an ANSI standard that recommends ECV (see the “Standards” section at www.csaaul.org.)

SIAC also mentioned the use of updated control panels built to the CP-01 standard for new installations as effective in reducing false alarms.

“It is not surprising that a handful of departments that have implemented verified response think it is an effective program. To say otherwise would be to admit they made a mistake and offer their citizens less protection than the vast majority of police departments around the country,” said Stan Martin, executive director of SIAC. “Many of these departments are severely understaffed and have crime rates that are far above the national average for both property and violent crime.”