At ISC Expo East in New York last month, the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) held its first official press conference to announce a nationwide initiative: It will promote the adoption and implementation of Enhanced Call Verification (ECV) to further reduce police dispatches to invalid security alarm activations.

ECV is a series of call procedures undertaken by central stations that are proven to reduce police dispatches while maintaining the crime deterrent effect of alarm systems. Studies were conducted by SIAC among ADT and Safe Systems of Boulder, Colo., showing reductions of 30 to 50 percent in burglar alarm dispatches.

ECV is now a policy in Boulder, reported Ron Walters, the director of SIAC who works with municipalities. Both ADT and Brink’s Home Security have already implemented it across their customer bases, he said.

“Enhanced Call Verification is the most effective program ever developed to reduce police dispatches to invalid alarms,” said SIAC executive director Stan Martin. “For years, the focus was on the reduction of the percentage of alarms that were deemed false, but the percentage rate was found to not be relevant to gauging the effective alarm management programs.”

When the International Association of Chiefs of Police Private Security Liaison Committee moved the focus to reducing alarm dispatches two years ago, the alarm industry’s response was the development of ECV. Although ECV is in the early stages of implementation, there is already evidence that the program is having a significant impact, with reductions of 25 to 50 percent in some jurisdictions.

“Studies indicate that an alarm company using ECV can eliminate up to 50 percent of alarm signals that would traditionally have resulted in a call for service because the signal was verified on the second call,” Martin said. SIAC is launching a national initiative to encourage alarm companies to adopt ECV into their dispatch protocols and also urging law enforcement to adopt ECV as a dispatch policy.

“There is a tremendous amount of interest in ECV by law enforcement,” said Glen Mowrey, retired deputy chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Charlotte, N.C.

SIAC is a non-profit organization formed to represent one voice for the alarm industry on alarm management issues. For more information, visit www.SIACinc.org, or call (972)377-9401.

SIAC also announced the development of a centralized national ordinance tracking database to provide standardized information regarding alarm ordinances and dispatch policies relating to the alarm industry.