CSAA Signals
Vol. 9, No. 1 —January 9, 2003
440 Maple Avenue East, Suite 201, Vienna, VA 22180
703-242-4670; Fax 703-242-4675
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CSAA Signals |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Los Angeles Police Commission Approves On January 7, the Los Angeles Police Commission unanimously approved a policy under which police officers would respond to a burglar alarm only after the break-in had been verified by either a witness or video. The City Council and the Mayor still need to approve the change. The proposed policy met with strong opposition from homeowners groups and the alarm industry. CSAA member Bob Harris, an eyewitness at the hearing, described the dismal situation in an interview with Celia Besore, CSAA's Director of Marketing & Communication. "Twenty-nine people spoke in front of the Police Commission against this ordinance, but were given only one minute to convey their concerns. Industry attorney (and CSAA member) Les Gold was cut-off mid sentence and told that his time was up as the minute mark passed. Southern California Alarm Association's Mark Sepulveda was next to speak and asked to donate his time to Les Gold--the Commission's president, Rick Caruso, denied this request stating "that time cannot be donated to another speaker." A number of senior citizens from the most crime-ridden areas of the city pleaded to the commission to reconsider this ordinance, but their concerns fell on deaf ears. Harris' opinion regarding the police commission decision is that the commission based their decision solely on information disseminated to them by Commission Executive Director Joe Gunn, who seemed to have made this ordinance his personal vendetta. Harris pointed out that much of the factual information conveyed to Gunn by industry associations prior to the hearing seemed not to have gotten into the hands of the commissioners. "While I have an extreme amount of respect for the police department, and the commission members, I'm really of the opinion that their decision was based in part on faulty information and on only half of the true story. It would benefit the City of Los Angeles citizens, police, and the alarm industry, if the police commission would have at least had allowed us to try to implement some of the changes we requested to dramatically reduce false alarm dispatches," said Harris. "Mr. Gunn's position is that our proposal would be impossible for the city to police. In addition, Gunn doesn't believe the industry would police itself," added Harris. However, the alarm industry would have no choice but to police itself, since if false dispatches were not reduced dramatically, then there is no doubt that the police would be justified in moving to the verified non-response policy. The Police Commission President Rick Caruso took issue with those who said that more study was need. Caruso added that the alarm industry can still go to the city council and try to get a two thirds majority to overturn this decision. On January 8, LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (15th District) filed the petition to veto this ordinance. Now Available: Audiotapes of Selected 2002 Annual Meeting Presentations CSAA is delighted to offer for sale audiocassettes of some of the presentations given at the 2002 Annual Meeting in Cancun, Mexico. To hear a sample of Mac Anderson's presentation,
Below is a list of available cassettes
Prices (includes shipping & handling): Members: $35.00 per tape; Click here to access the publication order form or visit http://www.csaaul.org/puborder.htm. CSAA Proprietary Central Station Council To Hold First Meeting The first formal meeting of the CSAA Proprietary Central Station (PSC) Council will be held this Jan. 23-24, 2003 at the offices of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois. "The Proprietary Central Stations in the US have many of the same interests as commercial central stations; however, they have some unique needs and views which need to be taken into account in areas such as standards, licensing and reciprocity, central station operator training, no-response, etc." said Steve Doyle, CSAA Executive Vice President, The upcoming meeting will focus on these and other concerns, such as the election of officers and assignment of initial tasks such as position papers relative to various industry initiatives wherein the Proprietary Central Stations have a concern. According to Doyle, "during the past year we have ha d a significant number of Proprietary Central Station join CSAA, with many others indicating they are ready to join. We are now in contact with almost 100 Proprietary Central Stations and they are beginning to coalesce as a group to find solutions to common problems unique to PCS." AFAA to Offer an on-line "Fire Alarm Fundamentals Certificate Program" The Automatic Fire Alarm Association (AFAA) has announced their plans to release a web-based training program, the "Fire Alarm Fundamentals Certificate Program," aimed at new persons in the alarm industry later this month. It encompasses fire alarm organizations, electrical fundamentals, system functions, power supplies, basic circuit design, introduction to initiating devices, heat detectors, heat detector placement, smoke detectors, smoke detectors and their placement, EVACS applications, fire safety control functions, inspection, testing and maintenance, and introductions to specialized fire detectors and to automatic sprinkler systems. The course may be purchased on line as a complete course or in modular fashion. Contact AFAA at www.afaa.org for more information. |