Larry Folsom recognized with SIA award

SILVER SPRING, Md.—SIA recently named Larry Folsom as this year's recipient of the Jay Hauhn Excellence in Partnerships Award, which recognizes security professionals who foster collaboration in the industry. The award will be presented at the SIA Honors Night on Nov. 14 in New York City.

Folsom was deserving of this award for several reasons, Scott Schafer, SIA's chairman of the board, told Security Systems News. “He's passionate about the industry—that's one of the most important things,” Schafer said. “This is about outreach and collaboration, and he really fits that because of the work that he's done.”

Folsom has more than 15 years of experience in the security industry, including serving as president of the Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response from 2016 to 2018. PPVAR works to educate security stakeholders about the value of video and other technologies in verifying alarm activity during the dispatch process, reducing the prevalence of false alarms and increasing apprehension rates for burglar alarms.

“Larry did a really nice job of pulling together a lot of the organizations working on their own,” Schafer said. “It wasn't just being involved with SIA and PPVAR, but it was also enlisting the support of others who had a stake in the game, and pulling everybody together so that everybody could benefit from the work that that one organization did.”

SIA noted in its announcement that nominators praised Folsom for moving PPVAR forward and working with police on how they can interact with alarm systems using video and other technologies. Folsom was also recognized for leading coordination between PPVAR and The Monitoring Association to ensure alignment between the two organizations and establish best practices for central station operations in pursuing verified alarms, according to SIA.

“Through his liaison work, particularly with the law enforcement community, Folsom's contributions have proven valuable to SIA members thanks to the generation of open dialogue between public safety leaders and monitoring firms—with positive outcomes in ordinance and policy development,” SIA said in its announcement.

“I am deeply humbled and honored to be recognized with SIA's Jay Hauhn Excellence in Partnerships Award,” Folsom said in a prepared statement. “Jay epitomizes what true collaboration can achieve for our industry. He has been an inspiration to me to also work to unify technologies, foster stronger industry alliances and partner with law enforcement to achieve mutual goals. I am proud to be part of an industry whose focus is making our communities safer.”

The Jay Hauhn Excellence in Partnerships Award is named in honor of Jay Hauhn. During his tenure as SIA's chairman of the board, Hauhn demonstrated a steadfast commitment to fostering collaboration among industry trade associations.

Folsom is the seventh recipient of the Jay Hauhn Excellence in Partnerships Award. Previous winners include Steve Van Till, Tim Eckersley, Ray Coulombe, Mike Howard, Tom Cellucci and Jay Hauhn.