PPVAR makes headway in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—More law enforcement organizations are recognizing the benefit of alarm verification; the California Police Chiefs Association board of directors adopted a resolution at its annual meeting that clarifies the term “verified alarm” and supports priority response.

“[This resolution] defines a verified alarm as a probable crime in progress and [is] very supportive in promoting priority response to those verified alarms as a way to reduce crime and make arrests and reduce property loss,” Keith Jentoft, partner liaison for PPVAR and former president of RSI Technologies, told Security Systems News.

This is the second time a large police chiefs association has defined verification; the Texas Police Chiefs Association passed a similar resolution in March 2015. Jentoft noted that California's and Texas' associations are the largest in the country, “So, they end up driving a lot of policies.”

Chief David Bejarano, an active proponent of the resolution, was the president of the California Police Chiefs Association until the end of 2015, and at the beginning of the year he joined the board at PPVAR.

A similar resolution is making its way through the National Sheriff's Association, according to Jentoft, which is meeting this week in Minneapolis. SIAC executive director Stan Martin told SSN he will be at the meeting and expects the resolution will be passed.

Martin said monitoring center operator training will be important. “As law enforcement starts to [understand] this new definition and the benefits it will receive, we need to make sure the central stations' operators are trained to handle—and differentiate between—departments that utilize priority response versus the ones that don't.” Laws concerning verification and priority response can change depending on jurisdiction.

Education is a priority for PPVAR, Jentoft said. “We're driving central station operator training, we're driving insurance underwriter and actuary training, and we're driving PSAP training. So, when [monitoring center] operators use the language and the process that PPVAR best practices put forward, the PSAP call-takers will know what we're talking about.”