ASC

Met Police award organisers say

08/07/06

The cost of attending false alarms on monitored systems in London has fallen by an estimated £24 million say organisers of the Metropolitan Police Service's [MPS] annual Alarm Performance Awards being held in London on June 9 to which three ASC members were invited.

Over the last ten years the Metropolitan Police Service has recorded a massive drop in the number of false alarms produced by the 274,000 monitored systems in their area.

Chief Superintendent Stephen MacDonald, in charge of the Metcall unit says this decrease is a positive development.

Reducing the number of false alarms is good for everyone.

The ever-improving performance of companies installing and monitoring alarm systems means fewer false alarms demanding a police presence are being generated, freeing up officers to attend true alarms and incidents and provide greater safety to the public.

At the same time reducing the number of false call-outs also produces more efficient use of public funds. The Met estimates the cost of officers attending false alarms has fallen from the equivalent of £32.85 million in 1996 to around £8.85 million in 2006,

This performance is being recognised at the MPS's annual Alarm Performance Awards, held in London today. The awards, presented in association with BT RedCARE, celebrate the work of alarm installing companies and the BSIA to reduce the number of false alarms through efficient management processes and partnership initiatives with the Metropolitan Police Service.

The Gold winners in the three main categories this year are:

? Small Companies (managing between 50- 999 systems): RAMPART SECURITY, Garsington, Oxfordshire

? Medium Companies (managing between 1000 - 4999 systems): CAPSTAN SECURITY, Barnet, Herts

? Large Companies (managing over 5000 systems): BANHAM ALARMS, LONDON, SW8


ALARMS/2

Two new MPS Partnership Awards have been added this year. For Contribution in Reducing False Alarms and The Development of Electronic Transfer of Alarm Activations in Partnership with the MPS.

The first MPS Partnership award for Contribution in Reducing False Alarms has been awarded to BSIA, The British Security Industry Association. Over the past few years The BSIA Security Systems Section has worked tirelessly in partnership with the police to put in place a strategy to reduce false alarms.


Chubb Electronic Security Ltd is the winner of the second MPS Partnership Award For the Development of Electronic Transfer of Alarm Activations. Through their SMC ARC Chubb developed an interface with the MPS to pass alarm activations allowing the activation to be passed direct to the Borough concerned. This cut response times significantly.

Chief Superintendent Stephen MacDonald added, I would like to extend my congratulations and thanks to all this year's winners. Through their commitment the Met is able to deploy officers to respond to true alarm calls where there is a real need for police assistance,


Case studies

1. This year the Gold Award for Large Companies is going to Banham Alarms for reduced false alarm rate. This company entered into a pilot scheme to reduce the amount of Personal Attack Alarm activations it's ARC ( Alarm Receiving Centre) was passing to Met Call Centres . This is generally referred to as Banham PA Filtering. There has been a steady reduction in the amount of PA activations passed. Currently down by 36%. 36 less calls attended out of every 100 equates to a saving of about £5400.00 plus officers being freed-up to attend other calls.


2. A special Partnership Award is going to Chubb Electronic Security
Ltd and they will also be getting a Bronze Award for their reduced
false alarm rate. Chubb entered into a Major project with the MPS to develop a method of passing alarm activations direct to the Borough thereby removing the need to use the dedicated 'phone line to telephone the emergency call operator in the relevant MPS Call Centre before the activation was passed to the Borough for response. This was achieved by using the Common Data Interface (CDI) in the same way as is done with the LAS and MDT. This process is now part of the normal operating procedure and Chubb's ARC, SMC, now only passes activations to the MPS in this way. Other major companies are queuing-up to introduce the electronic transfer method. The benefit to the MPS is that there is less call handling and response are substantially quicker. The ARC staff find the method much more efficient and Chubb see benefits in customer service.

3. The BSIA (British Security Industry Association) Security
Systems Section is to receive the other Partnership Award for their contribution in reducing false alarm activations. They have produced a Strategy for reduction of false alarms, which the MPS has supported . Discussions with the MPS were a major part of the consultation process undertaken by the lead on the strategy.

Amongst other winners in the silver and bronze categories was Home Counties Security Systems who collected the silver award in the small company category.