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FARA ROUNDTABLE had dropped down to a little over 8,000. I have gone out to several association meetings in California, with the Inland Empire Alarm Association and the Orange County Alarm Association chapters of the California Alarm Association. I work with them, keep in continual contact. T ere are still some key players we need to bring in but as a whole we've established a good relationship. Anything that would arise in my city or any assistance they may need, we consult each other, ask each other questions and have really fostered a good relationship. Lowe: For probably at least the last three years, our false alarms [in Lynchburg, Va.] have held about the same. I have anywhere from 200 to 230 as an estimate per month. T ey've held the same, but my permits have almost doubled. So you're talking about more users, more people who we have permits for, but we're still having about the same amount of false alarms. So really for us that's a reduction. I think we see that because we work so hard with the public, with the alarm user, and with the alarm industry. Instead of just sending out the paperwork and expecting them to respond, we actually try to build relationships with them so that they will be aware of it, so that we can work with them. Gerry Miller: We all have the same issues but how we deal with them is totally diff erent from Canada to the United States. In the U.S. they regulate the alarm industry. We do not do that in Canada. We just tell them how we will respond to the calls, get them to work with us, and reduce false alarms by working with them. To what extent do you believe that strong relationships with law enforcement increase the value of your company/services?* Slightly 4.8% Moderately 14.7% If you could pinpoint your top challenges regarding both alarm users and alarm companies, what would those be? Lowe: Being able to fi nd who you need to talk to sometimes, the responsible person. Even with alarm users, because you have people who own apartment complexes and maybe they've installed the system and now maybe they're not responsible for it. Once you rent to them you actually are responsible for it. It's not included in your rent, your fee. So sometimes that's a great challenge. T en also with the alarm companies is getting to the right person because sometimes you talk to someone who is just there, as actually a dispatcher they're there doing their "What we call two- call verifi cation is huge. T ey are going to more using the cell phone than they are trying to call a home number fi rst. T ey will call the person's cell, and then they actually have another person instead of just calling the premise and the home. AMY LOWE " Alarm Coordinator - Emergency Communications Center Lynchburg, Va. 50 / SECURITYSALES.COM / OCTOBER 2012 What's your perception of the false alarm issue overall? It would appear things are working a little better but what's your take? How much traction *Source: SSI 2011 Law Enforcement Security Industry Study Significantly 30.7% Security fi rms understand the value of maintaining strong alliances with law enforcement. Nearly four in 10 rated it "signifi cant" or "substantial." job to dispatch those alarms. Or you deal with the monitoring center and it actually is from the alarm installer. It gets extremely frustrating, especially if the alarm owner's on the top 10 of your big off ender list. Hansen: T e top challenges are educating the user on both sides. T at's our biggest challenge and where we see the most false alarms, is in user error. It's getting that education to the actual user, whether it's a resident or it's that store manager who's hired a new night manager and forgets to educate that night manager on how to arm/disarm the system, etc. Miller: I agree that there needs to be more training with the alarm user. T ey need to take responsibility for the alarm system. If the system is working properly and they're using it properly, false alarms would reduce even more. I think also the monitoring stations for the most part are aware when it's a false alarm, but because of liability issues they still have to dispatch police. T at is unfortunate because if they could take a little more ownership to help us that would also help. Not at all 2% Substantially 47.8%