Priority response to verified alarms marches on...

I got a call and an email from alarm verification's de facto spokesman, Keith Jentoft, president of RSI Video Technologies yesterday. He wanted to let me know that his priority response crusade is going well. He'd just finished up in Boston and was on his way to Idaho. He'd also spent some time in California. Looks like they're falling with what Keith and other proponents like Sonitrol have said is the priority response value proposition.

The big news appears to be that a lot of the southern part of the state is making official announcements of its backing of the priority response model, in which police grant higher response priority to alarms that are proactively verified by some kind of video or audio.

Here's what Keith had to say about Californina:

Boston has already moved forward on this and I just completed making presentations to the PSAPs in the 4 largest counties in southern California:

- Los Angeles County

- Orange County

- Riverside County

- San Bernardino County

All of them are moving forward with the Priority Response program. We go to every meeting with the larger security companies in the area. For the Southern California meetings we had:

- Stanley

- CMS

- USA (George Gunning, the owner, is the past president of the ESA)

I've been writing about verified alarms and the priority response movement for a while. Keith wanted let me know he'll be conducting a priority response seminar at ISC West next month on Tuesday April 5 in the morning... Not sure if I can make it since I may be in transit at the time, but I'm certainly going to try.

Here's a little of what Keith sent me on his seminar:

I have been very busy on working with the PSAPs (public safety answering points) also known as the 911 dispatch centers. Here are the details on the seminar that I will be making at ISC West on the topic ...

Tuesday, 04/05/2011: 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM

Priority Response: More Arrests, Efficiency, Safety

Priority Response is being embraced by law enforcement as a painless alternative to non-response that delivers more arrests and greater life safety. Using Priority Response, new generic video alarm systems send video clips of what caused alarm for immediate review. This enables dispatchers to assess priority, using confirmation of the alarm. However, in order to be effective in the dispatch center (PSAPs), a policy upgrade is necessary. This presentation will provide case studies of 3 different alarm technologies that are already working. Attendees will learn the new code used in the dispatch center for video alarms, the email address that Central Stations should use to send video clips to PSAP, and how to make a formal policy announcement to the community.

Learning Objectives:

1.  Understand that Priority Response is vendor neutral

2.  Showcase the ability of Priority Response to improve life safety, increase arrests and provide greater crime deterrence.

3.  Learn how to implement Priority Response in the 911 dispatch center with a simple policy change.

Speaker: Keith Jentoft, President, Videofied - RSI Video Technologies

Instead of the cumbersome and difficult process of implementing alarm ordinances, the PSAP manager can simply make a policy decision to grant higher priority response to video intrusion alarms.

Priority response appears to be really moving forward. I've written before, when I did a story on AD Group's Dedicated Micros, that in the UK, priority response is already the standard... What's your opinion? Do you offer some sort of verified solution?

I also just found out from Keith that he'd been invited to speak at an upcoming APCO event. Security folks don't get invited to these things often--let alone asked to speak. I covered some recognition Vector's Pam Petrow got last year for her extensive work on a computer-aided dispatch system—the External Alarm Interface Exchange Standard—for PSAP to central station data exchange.

Here's what Keith had to say to me in an email last night:

"This just happened yesterday.  I was just invited to speak at the national convention of APCO.  This is the association of all of the PSAPs (911 centers) around the country who actually receive the calls from the central stations and dispatch law enforcement to the alarms.  I don't think that the alarm industry has ever been invited to speak at an APCO event."

Let me know what your thoughts are on priority response.